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Biaggi tests with Midland F1 team

January 19, 2006 12:59 IST

Former MotoGP rider Max Biaggi kept tight-lipped about his future plans after trying out a Midland Formula One car at a rain-soaked Silverstone on Wednesday.

Midland said the 34-year-old Italian, dropped by his Honda team in motorcycling's top category at the end of last season, completed 10 laps in very wet conditions in the 2005 Jordan with a V8 engine.

"I took this chance...and if there is another chance for me soon I will take it. Maybe this year I will race bikes, maybe not. Nothing is decided yet," Biaggi said.

Biaggi, four times 250cc world champion, tried out a Ferrari Grand Prix car at that team's Fiorano test track in 1999, something MotoGP champion and compatriot Valentino Rossi has been doing more seriously of late.

While 26-year-old Rossi has had three separate Ferrari tests and is seen as a real prospect to switch from two wheels to four, Biaggi is unlikely to be considered for a serious role at newcomers Midland, even though Wednesday's outing was at Midland's invitation.

"I got a good feeling with the car. I didn't push myself to the limit because it was not the best day to do it but it was a nice emotion again to go back in Formula One," he said.

Biaggi hinted at a switch to the world superbike championship, which uses the Silverstone circuit, although motorcycling's 'Roman Emperor' has also talked on his website of a four-wheeled future.

ROSSI RIVALRY

"It was a good chance to sit in a Formula One car again and go to Silverstone where I didn't know the track yet," he said. "And maybe if I race bikes then I will know this track.

"It's not a kind of competition to see who jumps into Formula One first," added the Italian, who has a long-standing rivalry with Rossi.

"It's all about getting the right feeling and checking if it's something that fits yourself, if I really feel comfortable inside a Formula One car.

"At the moment it is too early to say, very early, but I don't close any doors about these opportunities," he said.

"We didn't make any [further] plans because in one month's time these guys will have to race and the championship will start for them and there will be too much happening."

Midland, formerly Jordan, have signed up Dutchman Christijan Albers as one of their race drivers with Portugal's Tiago Monteiro expected to partner him.

Source: REUTERS
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