Colin Edwards unveils 2012 Forward Racing livery

Colin Edwards unveiled the new Forward Racing MotoGP livery in Jerez last night ahead of the final winter test session at the Spanish circuit this weekend.

The American might have been nearly two hours late for the presentation, but he did finally make it to the launch to show off the new livery with NGM Mobile Forward Racing Moto2 duo Alex de Angelis and Yuki Takahashi.

The Texas Tornado arrived late having been delayed departing America as bad weather disrupted his flight to Europe.

He arrived on a connecting fight from Madrid to Jerez and dashed straight from his hire car to attend the launch.

When he finally did arrive to pose for pictures on the new Suter-BMW machine, he said: “Sorry for being late but there was a tornado bigger than me preventing me from flying as planned.”

Edwards touched on the huge task he faces to make the CRT project competitive. The bike features a tuned BMW S1000R engine and a prototype chassis built by Swiss-based Suter Racing Technology.

The double World Superbike champion said: “We know we have got a lot of work to do but we are ready for it. Nobody said it was going to be easy but everybody is working really hard. At the last test in Sepang we made a big step with the Bosch electronics.

“When we started I’d say they were at 60% but we found something at the last test and we are now around 90%. We still need to make it smoother and more friendly but as I’ve said, we know Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

Edwards though revealed the improvement in electronics had increased chatter with the new softer construction Bridgestone tyres.

He said: “Improving the electronics means we have run into some pretty big issues with the chassis, but we are working on solving that.”

The final winter test kicks off in Jerez on Friday ahead of the season’s opening race in Qatar on April 8.

For full coverage from the Jerez test, see the March 28 issue of MCN.