It's not just this season, I don't think his results have been good enough for a while. He seldom manages to keep up with the leading group. Four or five races a season?
The rest of the time, yes he brings home points but he's usually trailing the leading group by quite some distance, especially at the start of races.
I don't think he shows any real hunger, he rides around in his comfort zone, picking up points by attrition. When did he last put pressure on Rossi or Lorenzo? He's been at Honda for a long time now and he's been soundly beaten by his team mates pretty much every season.
He seldom takes points off the Yamaha guys even on the days where they're not at their best, which to my mind, means he's not even being an effective number 2.
Pedrosa is MotoGP's Eddie Irvine or Rubens Barrichello.
While his contribution has been valuable he's clearly not going to get any better at this stage of his career, so I didn't think it made sense to renew him. I think any number of the riders out there could do at least as good a job as he has been doing.
Time to bring in a younger, hungrier guy.
