JANUARY 18, 2006

Biaggi and MF1

Max Biaggi has long dallied with the idea of one day being a Formula 1 driver and today and tomorrow will be at Silverstone to test drive for MF1 Racing during a hiatus in his motorcycling career following problems with Honda in the MotoGP series. It seems likely that Biaggi will end up racing in Superbikes this year but no deal is yet done and he is taking the opportunity to try his hand at F1. Biaggi has previously tested with Ferrari.

Biaggi could conceivably be a candidate for the second MF1 drive but this would come as a big surprise to Tiago Monteiro who has already said that he has signed a contract with MF1. For some reason MF1 has not confirmed this news and one must assume that it is down to money as there is no indication that the team has suddenly landed a major new sponsor. Having said that, running Biaggi would probably help get the team some publicity and might attract sponsorship. The thing that makes a deal unlikely is, unless there is some form of divine intervention, that MF1 is not going to be a competitive package against the high-spending manufacturer teams and thus Biaggi would be hard-pressed to make a reputation sufficient to get him a drive elsewhere. At 34 he is a little too old to be a serious F1 novice and one must presume that he is simply having some fun.