Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha), Casey Stoner (Ducati) and Dani Pedrosa (Honda) will all be free agents at the end of the 2010 season – which means that the 2011 funny season has already started, 15 months before the first race!
Honda have declared that they are going after Casey Stoner, a proven race and championship winner, for 2011, effectively giving notice to Dani Pedrosa that he will not return as No 1 rider after the coming season. Honda have been raiding other teams to build up their management and technical team in preparation for 2011, and will re-evaluate the mentally and physically fragile Dani Pedrosa in 2010, as a second rider and fall-back plan if they are unsuccessful at signing Stoner, or Lorenzo, or who knows if he were to win the 2010 championship after Honda has signed their dream man.
A Stoner departure would leave Ducati high and dry, especially as he is the only guy who can win races on that bike - unless they can sign Rossi (Or Jorge Lorenzo) for untold millions. Nicki Hayden appears safe as second rider there, as he is a great worker and team player, and Ducati sales are going well in the USA.
All hell has broken loose at Yamaha, who have lost three key engineers to Honda, want to sign Rossi to a multi-year contract and lock him in for the rest of his career, and will offer the same deal to Lorenzo if Rossi goes to Ducati... or to Formula 1 with Ferrari, as per Bernie Ecclestone’s and all of F1’s dreams. If both Rossi and Lorenzo were to leave Yamaha at the end of 2010, their fall back plan might become Ben Spies, who will be good and ready when the GP bikes go up to 1000cc in 2012. And by the way, did Suzuki ever screw the pooch when they let that guy go!
Here are a few other strong suspicions or certainties. Hayden and Rossi will not go back to Honda after slamming the door there when they left. Rossi wants to be uncontested number 1 rider wherever he goes. Stoner also needs to be lead rider, but appears not to care who he rides with. That pliable attitude might change if he were paired with barracudas such as Rossi or Lorenzo. Lorenzo is championship-quick and incredibly courageous when riding hurt, but crashes too often and, like Pedrosa, may not remain in one piece long enough to win championships.
At the end of the day, every potential 2010 MotoGP Champion may go to another team for 2011. So much for effective team building, morale, trust and sharing of information.
photo:Yamaha
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Honda have declared that they are going after Casey Stoner, a proven race and championship winner, for 2011, effectively giving notice to Dani Pedrosa that he will not return as No 1 rider after the coming season. Honda have been raiding other teams to build up their management and technical team in preparation for 2011, and will re-evaluate the mentally and physically fragile Dani Pedrosa in 2010, as a second rider and fall-back plan if they are unsuccessful at signing Stoner, or Lorenzo, or who knows if he were to win the 2010 championship after Honda has signed their dream man.
A Stoner departure would leave Ducati high and dry, especially as he is the only guy who can win races on that bike - unless they can sign Rossi (Or Jorge Lorenzo) for untold millions. Nicki Hayden appears safe as second rider there, as he is a great worker and team player, and Ducati sales are going well in the USA.
All hell has broken loose at Yamaha, who have lost three key engineers to Honda, want to sign Rossi to a multi-year contract and lock him in for the rest of his career, and will offer the same deal to Lorenzo if Rossi goes to Ducati... or to Formula 1 with Ferrari, as per Bernie Ecclestone’s and all of F1’s dreams. If both Rossi and Lorenzo were to leave Yamaha at the end of 2010, their fall back plan might become Ben Spies, who will be good and ready when the GP bikes go up to 1000cc in 2012. And by the way, did Suzuki ever screw the pooch when they let that guy go!
Here are a few other strong suspicions or certainties. Hayden and Rossi will not go back to Honda after slamming the door there when they left. Rossi wants to be uncontested number 1 rider wherever he goes. Stoner also needs to be lead rider, but appears not to care who he rides with. That pliable attitude might change if he were paired with barracudas such as Rossi or Lorenzo. Lorenzo is championship-quick and incredibly courageous when riding hurt, but crashes too often and, like Pedrosa, may not remain in one piece long enough to win championships.
At the end of the day, every potential 2010 MotoGP Champion may go to another team for 2011. So much for effective team building, morale, trust and sharing of information.
photo:Yamaha