At first, there was no place at Yamaha – now the Swiss team is worth its weight in gold!

For twelve years, Andrea Quadranti organised MV Agusta’s factory programme in the Supersport World Championship. In fact, the Italian manufacturer’s involvement was minimal, and the Ticino-based entrepreneur invested a great deal of his own capital. It came as a surprise when Quadranti switched to Yamaha in the winter and has since been operating as AS Racing – the abbreviation is the name of his dog.

It was a turbulent few weeks before the move could be finalised. Yamaha had no room for another team, and it was only when the former world champion squad, Evan Bros, moved to ZX Moto that the way was clear for Quadranti. What has followed since then is a success story and could culminate in the team’s first world championship title.

Albert Arenas bei seinem ersten Sieg auf Phillip Island

Foto: gold & goose

Star rider Albert Arenas won right at the start of the season at Phillip Island and, after seven rounds, the Spaniard leads the overall standings with three wins and eleven podium finishes, sitting comfortably on 251 points ahead of Valentin Debise (ZX Moto) on 195 points.

Nobody expected a start like this

Did Quadranti expect such a Yamaha debut? “Perhaps not that, but what I really hadn’t expected were the results in Australia. We treated the first race weekend with Yamaha as a test, because neither we nor Albert were familiar with the bike. We didn’t feel ready and just wanted to limit the damage,” the Swiss rider told SPEEDWEEK.com editor-in-chief Ivo Schützbach. “But then the first race didn’t go too badly, and the second was even better. Then came Portimão: it wasn’t outstanding, but basically we’ve been making steady progress – and we have to, because the competition is incredibly fierce. And just one race can change everything, as was the case with the crash at Most. You lose a lot of points there, whilst others make up a lot of ground. The championship is a long one and it’s still a bit early to be thinking about the title.”

The switch of manufacturer has already proved to be the right decision. “Many people thought I should have switched earlier, but no interesting opportunity had arisen before then,” explained Quadranti. “Yamaha had its established teams and we only got our chance when the spot at Evan Bros became vacant. If Evan Bros had carried on, a switch of manufacturers would have been very difficult. If there was ever a chance, it was perhaps a few years ago.”

I don’t attribute the successes solely to the team.

Andrea Quadranti

Quadranti continued: “Managing a change like this isn’t easy. In Australia, other Yamaha teams helped us because we were short of parts. Now they look up to us because we usually get the best Yamaha across the line. You can sense that respect for our team has grown,” smiled the team boss. “That’s nice for me, but I don’t attribute the successes solely to the team. The rider always plays a big part in it too. Can Öncü, for example, is a very good rider, but Arenas is still a little better. The difference in lap times is often minimal, almost nothing at all. In that respect, I don’t believe we’re doing a better job as a team than Ten Kate, who have so much experience and outstanding people.”