The FP1 is 16 years old…
The Petronas FP1 saga is a delicious mystery tale that currently doesn’t have an ending… Back in 2001 Sauber Petronas wanted to go Motogp racing. Realising that the four-stroke era was about to begin, they designed a threecylinder four-stroke motor that was even tested in Malaysia by CMM’S very own Niall Mackenzie. Then things ‘changed’. Instead, the motor would be housed in a homologated road-bike chassis and be raced in World Superbikes as part of ‘Foggy Petronas Racing’ headed up by none other than Carl Fogarty himself. With this being a new venture, a new bike, a big backer in the form of Petronas it was good news for WSB, especially as Motogp was going four-stroke and manufacturers like Honda and Kawasaki were leaving the production-based series. Sadly, the change of rules from 900cc triples to 1000cc triples in 2003 didn’t help (the FP1 was an 899cc triple) so out on track it had a power disadvantage. The bike raced during the 2003-2006 seasons with best finishes of three podiums and two pole positions, thanks to riders such as Chris Walker, Troy Corser, James Haydon, Garry Mccoy and Craig Jones. The results could be said to be a poor return on the alleged £30 million investment into the team, which – one former FP1 racer said: “Should have been spent on the bike, not the hospitality unit…” Of course, to actually go racing they had to make road bikes: 150 to be exact and it’s here the story goes a bit strange… The bikes were to be real homologation specials – like a ‘Sports Production’ version of a Jap 750 sportster, say an RC30 or OW-01 – but it seems even they didn’t turn up. These were supposed to cost more than £20,000 with more austere versions being made at a later date. The race bikes were to be built by Suter, the famed Moto2/two-stroke replica company from Switzerland, headed up by former racer Eskil Suter, while the road bikes were to be built by another company in Essex. Furtive, half-hearted road-tests of the bikes were made in the main motorcycling newspaper of the time, but the bikes themselves were as scarce as hen’s teeth. In recent years it seems that around 130 road bikes were locked in a warehouse following confusion as to whether duties on the bikes had been paid. Either way it’s a sad end to the tale of the FP1: the race replica homologation special that wasn’t. cmm