Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) had a sometimes-tough season in 2011, punctuated by the odd podium highlight along the way, but for 2012 he will be riding as part of a very different BMW factory set-up.

With a new team-mate in Marco Melandri, many new staff members including team boss Andrea Dosoli, and a new model of S1000RR to ride, Haslam has many fresh challenges to meet. Early indications from testing - which restarts for him and his team again next week - are that each of the new initiatives will bring an improvement in measurable on-track performance.

Some riders may see the arrival of a talent like Melandri as a threat to their chances of success but for Leon the appearance of his old mate Marco on the other side of his garage is a boon. "I have known him for years and he used to live nearby me in England," said Leon. "We used to ride motocross together as well. I am happy to have Marco as a team-mate. The opinions he has given about the bike are the same ones I had last year. Marco brings a lot of experience and it is good to have a fast team-mate as well."


With a heavily revised S1000RR model under his control in 2012, both as a streetbike and a racebike, Haslam is pleased that so many of his requests from 2011 have now been initiated, and not just in terms of parts and technical changes. He stated, "We have got a lot of the changes to the bike that we were asking for year last year, some new staff and a new structure. I still have my crew chief Giacomo Guidotti, plus two new mapping and data analysis guys, Bruno and Stefano. The main factors we have improved with the package are electronics, engine management and machine rideability."

The official BMW team has already enjoyed seven days of on-track preparation for 2012 already but with the testing ban running through all of December and much of January, Haslam is keen to get back into action on track. "We are going to Europe to test next week, at Valencia, then we will be heading to Australia for some track time with lots of other teams, and then the official tests before the first race. The testing ban has made it a very long winter so I am really eager to get back into it again."

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