As the current MotoGP season draws to a close it seems like the gloves are coming off in the Repsol Honda team. This week, Dani Pedrosa’s manager, Alberto Puig gave a frank interview to motogp.com and slammed Nicky Hayden and criticised him by saying: “…he never knew how to set-up a bike”.
Unfortunately they didn’t dare ask Puig if Dani Pedrosa would be running with the number 3 plate next season.
From Motogp.com, full interview here.
Q: Are you doing a better job with the garage partition in place?
Puig: `I wouldn´t say that. We work the same way as always. The wall was something that the tyre manufacturers requested; it had happened before with Yamaha and now it happens in our team; it´s not as if anybody specifically requested it. Dani never followed what his team-mate was doing, so we keep working the same way as before, when there wasn´t a wall. Dani wasn´t affected by this.´
Q: Dani´s Repsol Honda teammate Nicky Hayden has mentioned in various interviews that he isn´t keen on the divide. Was there previously any kind of collaboration that no longer exists?
Puig: `All I can say is that Hayden may be bothered because now he can´t access information and telemetry data from Dani´s bike. With this information he was able to improve his riding, as he had all of Dani´s references and now he can´t use that any longer. He was simply copying as he never knew how to set-up a bike. A professional rider can´t be complaining because he can´t get access to the other rider´s data, because finding what works best is his job, not the other rider´s. Everybody knows that a racing team doesn´t work like a football team. It involves two riders, but each is working for himself and the factory will support the rider who has the best chance. Because when it comes to winning, only one rider wins. It has always been like this and it always will be like this – anybody who says the opposite is just lying to look good.´
Q: Would it be true to say that the relationship between Dani and Hayden has always been quite tense, and that there’s nothing new in this respect?
Puig: `That´s not the case. Everything changed with the incident in Portugal (in 2006), where Dani made a mistake during the race and apologised for it afterwards. Nicky eventually won the title and Dani did what he had to do in Valencia, which was to help him. But from that point -even if Hayden denies it- all he´s been doing has been talking about how Dani was `weird´ and bringing the people around Pedrosa into the subject. He shouldn´t act like a hypocrite and say that he doesn´t have a problem with Dani, because since that incident in Portugal I think he has talked to him about twice. He shouldn´t involve Dani´s manager in this just because he´s jealous of another rider.´
Q: Was the rivalry between the two as strong as one might think?
Puig: `Honestly, and without trying to offend anyone, there was never a rivalry in the garage. Nicky won the title when Dani was in his first MotoGP season, and since then there was no rivalry because he (Hayden) didn´t get the results. On his own, Dani gained experience in this class and Nicky was always behind him, so Nicky has never been a serious rival.´
As his manager, we can understand Puig defending Dani, but such a one sided view as expressed in the interview is baffling and raises questions on the influenece he has over Dani’s media personality. Sometimes it’s hard to see where Puig stops and Pedrosa starts; earlier this year Dani made similar comments by stating: “I am worried about recovering quickly from the injury. I want to get back on the bike as soon as possible. Historically, Nicky has not been very beneficial when he has taken on the responsibility to evolve the motorcycle.”
Unfair considering Hayden did the bulk of the bike development when Pedrosa was out of action with injury for so long during the pre-season.
As an attempt to redress the balance and add a counter weight to Puig’s one sided comments, we answer the question: How did the Honda improve over the last 12 months? – well Puig maintains it’s all down to Pedrosa’s ability to test, develop, and set up a bike. Want evidence? Here it is:
1) Pedrosa testing the Honda and making tweaks to the settings in Australia 2007:
2) Pedrosa testing the Honda in Sepang 2007:
3) Pedrosa developing the brakes at Motegi 2007:
4) Pedrosa making the most of his wet settings on race day in Germany 2008:
If you have any other outstanding Dani Pedrosa development and testing moments feel free to add in the comments section.
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i think Nicky Hayden is an amazing riding i have followed his career since he started Dani Pdrosa was always crashing into Nicky who now if Dani hadn’t of take Nicky out so much Nicky might have won again. I think Nicky is a lot happy now he’s at Ducati.