Lots of work still to do for Milwaukee Yamaha

Josh Brookes has admitted that there’s still a lot of work to be done on the brand new Milwaukee Yamaha R1 in the coming weeks, despite the start of the MCE British Superbike championship being only a few days away.

However, the Aussie is upbeat about their chances as the year goes on, despite him and teammate Broc Parkes finishing Thursday’s Donington Park test ninth and thirteenth respectively.

“The bike is good. Obviously everyone has been reading about how great it is in the press, and everyone knows that there’s going to be a huge negative for us in losing the electronics. But the platform we have to build from is a lot better than what we started with.

“Last year’s bike was refined to the best we could make it – brakes, steering, engine; everything was the very best it could be – but it still wasn’t competitive.”

Among the parts that the squad are still waiting on are a new swinging arm and fuel tank, to replace the standard parts still being used by the team. But with these in place hopefully by the opening few rounds, Brookes is confident.

“The new bike has a lot of rough edges, and there’s a lot of parts we haven’t got available yet – but the base potential is half way there. It might not look totally obvious yet what that potential is, but as a team we’re really excited.”