The NGM Mobile Forward Racing rider evaluated the final pre-season Test at Jerez, as he and his team prepare for the debut of their Suter-BMW CRT machine in Qatar.

Colin Edwards and the NGM Mobile Forward Racing team ended the pre-season on a positive note after three days of testing in the south of Spain, leaving aside the second day of testing where the wind and rain kept them in the pit box for the most part.

The team, guided by the experience of the American rider, have concentrated their efforts on the development of the electronics and Suter chassis with a pleasing result in view of the first race that will take place in less than two weeks at Losail in Qatar.

Colin Edwards:

"Inherently we still have some problems. Theoretically we have a high front engine mount that is creating a lot of issues for us. We have a lot of vibration, engine noise through the handlebars, which is also related to that. Chatter, we still have the same type. You get in on a 45 degree/50 degree angle and if you have too much weight on the front or are trying to push too hard I can make this bike chatter anywhere. So I have to ride around it, brake a little early and minimise the time from break to gas to ride around the chatter. It makes it hard, the new Bridgestone front has helped though, it has tamed it down. We played a little bit today (Sunday) with the chassis, thanks to Öhlins as they helped out a lot and also made it better, and with a little bit of a different geometry in the front it got better. It was better, it was faster, it was easier to ride but we still haven’t cured the problem 100%.

"Riding in the rain for the very first time actually didn’t feel that bad, we kind of shot ourselves in the foot the first time we when out but the bike probably felt the best. We came in and we really tried to re-engineer the wheel with electronics, create something more friendly but I think we got it a little bit wrong. We know now so I think next time we have a rain session we will be fine."

Kornelis Veldeman – Crew Chief:

"I think we have made a good improvement since the last test with the electronics. We made quite a big step on the first day and on the second day we lost too much time because of the bad weather. On the third day we started again with the dry setting and we made a step forward and we can say that we are happy with the development and current set of electronics. After this we basically worked on the chassis side, where we have also made improvements.

"Testing the CRT for the first time in rain conditions was a new experience, we had to learn a lot electronic-wise. In Sepang we had some rain but we didn’t ride there because the electronics were not quite yet at the level to be tested. We struggled at the beginning but in the end we found a reasonable setting for the rain and now we know in which direction to continue."

.