The subject of Aprilia not winning a single race in 2002 seems preposterous if examined from a mid-season 2001 perspective.

Last year, Troy Corser was a World Superbike title favorite and actually led the world championship--and drilled SuperPole at Imola. The Aprilia had the competition running scared in the early part of the 2001 season because of its amazing acceleration and impressive top speed advantage. And the other Italian motorcycle manufacturer won the second Imola race with Regis Laconi at the controls.

Aprilia obviously did a re-think on their racing department after the 2001 season, sending Laconi to GP1 (MotoGP)and farming out the Superbike team to the Gudotti family for 2002. They still valued Superbike, because Aprilia hired Nori Haga from Grand Prix to ride the Aprilia RSV, but he would go at it alone, with no co-rider.

Veteran race watchers knew that move was a huge gamble on Aprilia's part. The Aprilia is a very precise motorcycle, likes to be on the fat side of the tire early after the apex so as to blast out of the corner. Corser has a very precise riding style and declared himself happy with the 2001 bike many times. Whereas Haga has a very loose riding style and in the past when he has been asked to deviate from that aggressive riding style it has not gone well.

Coming into the final round at Imola 2002, the formerly very competitive Aprilia now is a shell of its 2001 self. The Aprilia is winless in 2002; and whether this is because Aprilia let the WSC team flounder as they raced for seemingly millionth place in GP1, or because Haga cannot ride a Twin successfully, or because the machine is not yet refined enough to need just one rider to do testing and racing, or because the team uses Dunlop tires (which are little match for the Michelins in 2002) is all a matter of opinion.

The only thing pundits seem to be able to agree on is that Aprilia had the potential to win—and perhaps dominate--the world championship this year. That it didn't is quite curious and perhaps a lesson what not to do in terms of racing department management. There is an old phrase in Italian which loosely translated means 'never wake a sleeping baby'. In layman's terms this can mean 'don't mess with a good thing' and that subtle refinements in all areas of a racing organization and machine are a better bet when you're close to success rather than wholesale, radical changes everywhere. It took Cagiva's GP team the better part of ten years (and the hiring of Eddie Lawson & later Kel Carruthers) to realize that cutting the steering head off on a weekly basis and debuting a brand new bike every year almost always vanquishes any chance at short-term success.

Making things more of an uphill battle at Imola: Nori Haga has never raced at Imola, and he has struggled at new tracks this season.

Current WSC rumor guard has it that Aprilia will field Nori Haga and Frankie Chili in 2003 in WSC, with the team run by the factory again, as it was in 2001.