Milwaukee Team and Aprilia are on the outs for the extension of their partnership, which is expiring at the end of the season. Shaun Muir, SMR (Shaun Muir Racing) Owner, said that the team is considering some alternative paths and one of these is the return to British Superbike, where the British squad triumphed in 2015 with Yamaha and Josh Brookes. Since 2016, thanks to the American tool manufacturer Milwaukee, SMR jumped to WorldSBK first with BMW (2016) and then with Aprilia, but so far the results haven’t been satisfactory.
“For 2019 we’re evaluating many possibilities and at the moment I want to stay in World Superbike with the support of a deterined manufacturer” says Shaun Muir. “We want to win. Aprilia is very well-structured, they help us a lot, but it’s clear that their priority is MotoGP. If we want to extend the deal, we must renegotiate the conditions, because the current ones are not acceptable”.
Muir admits he’s considering a switch to another manufacturer: “But we haven’t negotiated with anyone yet. BMW will launch a new model in 2019, but nobody knows how they will be committed in racing. Also Suzuki (currently not in World Superbike, ed) could be interesting.” At the moment Milwaukee Team isn’t concretely negotiating with anybody, so these words could be a strategy to force Aprilia to lower the costs of their technical support. It’s hard to say who has the upper hand.
“Our priority is MotoGP. We want to win there and an official commitment in World Superbike is unlikely to happen” says Aprilia. “Anyway we’re happy with the partnership with Milwaukee. They’re a serious team and they always keep their promises”.
The situation is tough especially for Dorna, since World Superbike has just 19 riders on the field. If Milwaukee and Aprilia don’t reach an agreement, Dorna will be forced to convince SMR not to go back to BSB. Moreover, they’ll have to convince Aprilia not to leave WSBK, if nobody can spend two million euros for their technical support…