Edwards not interested in World Superbike return

Valentino Rossi’s factory Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards had told MCN he isn’t contemplating a return to the World Superbike championship, even if he fails to secure his MotoGP future for 2008.

Edwards’ place in the Fiat Yamaha squad is the subject of much conjecture in the MotoGP paddock, with his ride being constantly linked to reigning world 250 champion Jorge Lorenzo.

The American finds himself in a similar situation to last season when Yamaha spent the early part of 2006 negotiating with current MotoGP series leader Casey Stoner while he was an LCR Honda rider. Talks petered out and later in the season Stoner signed a deal to join Ducati’s factory squad, where he was won three of the opening six races of the ’07 campaign.

The double WSB champion recently made a surprise appearance in the World Superbike paddock at Silverstone, where inevitably rumours started that he would return for the first time since his dramatic final round title success over Troy Bayliss at Imola in 2002.

MCN understands he did have brief talks with the Ten Kate Honda squad, who could be scouting for a replacement for James Toseland, with the British rider strongly linked to quit and join MotoGP next season.

Edwards told MCN: “Obviously Lorenzo has been talked about quite a bit about coming to Yamaha. The one good thing for me is if they are going to bring in some new fresh guys that means Valentino will carry pretty much the whole load of development and my feeling is Yamaha really need me more next year than at any time. They’ll need experienced and somebody to help Valentino make the bike better.

“I don’t entertain the idea of going back to World Superbikes.  I could pretty much say 99.9 per cent that won’t happen. If that was to be my only choice then I still don’t think I’d go back. I can’t see going back after how I left. I won a couple of world championships and that last race I had was probably the best race I’ve ever been involved in. To go back and say I have something else to prove doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. It would be good to go back in a way and race with Bayliss and kick up the old fire again but I can’t say I’m totally motivated for that at all.”