Colin Edwards excited at 2014 MotoGP prospects

Colin Edwards is convinced Yamaha’s new production YZR-M1 racer will re-establish the Texan as a regular top 10 challenger in MotoGP next year.

The double World Superbike champion is hotly-tipped to keep his place in the Forward Racing squad next season and will ride a 2012-spec YZR-M1 that will run 24 litres and the standard Magnetti Marelli electronics for non-factory bikes.

Edwards rode a YZR-M1 machine for seven years but since leaving the Tech 3 squad at the end of 2011, the American veteran has only scored one top 10 finish, having toiled firstly on a BMW-Suter machine and more recently on an FTR-Kawasaki.

Senior statesman Edwards, who will be 40 when the 2014 campaign kicks off in Qatar next March, is expected to partner Spaniard Aleix Espargaro and he told MCN: “It is a new project with Yamaha involved and it makes a lot of sense to have one young rider and one experienced rider. It is looking good for me.”

Assessing the performance potential of the YZR-M1 with four litres more fuel than the factory prototypes, Edwards added: “The term salivating at the mouth is accurate. We can sit here and guess the potential but we don’t really know.

The two factory Yamahas and Hondas are obviously still going to be at the top of the heap but I think the package has a chance at a few races where with 24 litres. You can probably get some top speed that will be better than the factory boys. Theoretically it all sounds awesome. I don’t want to say too much but I feel like a leopard just waiting for something to jump out and pounce.”