PBM's MotoGP team leader Michael Laverty is facing a five-month wait for an engine upgrade from Aprilia which will see him equipped with more powerful, pneumatic-valved powerplant.

The Irishman will run the same bike he used at Valencia during the opening tests at Sepang, which start on February 4, and concentrate on improving setup with the control Magneti Marelli electronics.

“It’s basically the bike I finished the Valencia test on, pretty much in its entirety. At Sepang, I will just be doing electronics work. That was the big breakthrough for us in Valencia and we know there is still more work to do so I will be concentrating on that. Brock (Parkes, Laverty’s new team-mate) will be getting used to the PBM chassis. Nothing major for me, more just electronics and Brock just a familiarisation," said Laverty, speaking to bikesportnews.com.

“We will be running the 2013 engine for tests one and two, then hopefully the 2014 engine for Qatar. The major upgrade with pneumatic valves, hopefully gearbox and whatever trick bits they have in the pipeline probably won’t be available until June. Aprilia's plan got a couple of months behind schedule once Gigi Dall’Igna left, I suppose it meant everything got a bit behind schedule.

"We are having to start with engines, upgraded to the spec that Espargaro had so that’s quite a bit stronger but the big upgrade they are hoping for would put us on par with custom Hondas and this won’t be available until June.”

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