Estoril Race

I can´t tell. But I do know that Dani has been consistetly on the podium from day one in GP. Dovi had the seat and did worse than Pedrosa. Cal, Ben do not have close to the consistency Dani has. Cal is even with Dovi on the Yam, so i´ll deduce about the same on the Honda. Ben has been on a FACTORY Yam for a year + and proven squat. And not sure why you bring up Rossi when there is no chance in hell that he will be on a Honda, let alone HRC.



Randy should have had a shot, too bad he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He should have been resignd with LCR.

Dani is the Marquez of his generation and can only manage podiums not championships. His time has passed, let him be a mentor. Dovi had a seat on Dani's bike, as did Nicky in the day. I think Dovi would do very well, better than Dani on Casey's Honda. Cal's yet to be on a factory ride, Dovi is starting to come to terms with Yami-style riding so their being equal on factory Honda is entirely debatable. Ben has not lived up to expectations but I'd still give him a shot. I brought up Rossi because you said, "I don't see any of the GP riders better or even on par with Pedrosa", NOT, "I don't see any of the GP riders better or even on par with Pedrosa who have a hope in hell of riding a factory Honda again"!!!!

In the perfect world, teams would have tryout sessions each year where each rider has X amount of time on the given teams bike. After the tryouts, kids would line up at the paper plasterd on the wall to see if they made the team. Think little league baseball. But giving these guys a "chance" is signing at least a year contract and being stuck with what you signed up for if it all goes south.



If you were paying the bills Mick, who would bet on?? The moderately conservative approach of a known winner such as Dani. Would you really throw a years worth on Ben at the moment?? It's easy to play with others money!





Pretty soon some forum monitor will chime in that this now belongs in the GP section!

As I said earlier, and if it was with my $$ I would hire Nicky to ride with Casey (no need to spend $ on a second rider to take points from Casey AND he and Nicky get on well AND Nicky's a workhorse AND Nicky brings money) and put Dani with Marquez on satellites for two seasons (the kid needs a mentor and no one knows his route to MGP like Dani). I really believe this is the best way for Honda to allocate their rider budget.

I'd agree with you completely if it was only Honda/HRC's money to spend. Repsol has a big say, and I'm sure for them a Spanish rider is a must. They are both at all the petrol/gas stations. I was surprised that during the Gibernau years he was never at Repsol, although he did have full factory support at Telefonica, another Spanish giant.

I just finished reading the "Why is Dani Still on the Factory Team" thread and there was a lot of good points there. I agree that the Repsol factor changes everything I said. If its Repsols money not mine, I agree with what Gaz said in the other thread, "if Stoner signs a 1 year contract... Dani should seek and will likely be granted a 2 year deal to tie him to HRC for seasons 2013/2014. That way, if Stoner decides to retire at year end 2013 HRC will not risk having two inexperienced factory riders (Marquez and another)."

Mick D said:

I just finished reading the "Why is Dani Still on the Factory Team" thread and there was a lot of good points there. I agree that the Repsol factor changes everything I said. If its Repsols money not mine, I agree with what Gaz said in the other thread, "if Stoner signs a 1 year contract... Dani should seek and will likely be granted a 2 year deal to tie him to HRC for seasons 2013/2014. That way, if Stoner decides to retire at year end 2013 HRC will not risk having two inexperienced factory riders (Marquez and another)."

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+1 Gaz raised an excellent point point there and much food for thought.