In a whirlwind of announcements made last week, Honda parted ways with longtime rider Dani Pedrosa, replacing him with Jorge Lorenzo to partner with Marc Marquez for at least two MotoGP seasons until 2020.
The 18-years association ended on ‘mutual’ terms as Pedrosa was tipped to announce his next move during this weekend’s Catalan Grand Prix. However, the Spaniard apologised to the media for not having any news on his future.
When asked if he knew Honda will decide to replace him after 2018, Pedrosa revealed that this decision was to come when he re-signed two years back in the 2016 season. “They [Honda management] knew already,” Pedrosa said.
“Two years ago with the previous people in the team, they knew that I said to them more or less that this would happen. At the end, it is a mutual thing. It is just that…of course you realise more when it comes to reality completely, but more or less it was already spoken before.
“And no [it was not the bike to leave]. It is [more] to me, myself. You know, you need to look for new things and I think it is a good moment to start watching what you can do next. So, it’s quite simple [for me], as much as you try to believe it is complicated,” he explained.
Interestingly, Pedrosa tried as much not to use the word ‘retirement’ when asked multiple times if one of his options is to retire if he doesn’t find any seat. Whenever he spoke, he put it under-disguise.
“I cannot speak about the options [I have] and I cannot say it what you [said about retirement] is correct or not,” he said. “I can only say that there are options and [I am] still considering [them].
“More than what I can see is somebody was thinking about what you just said [retirement] because I see so many people [only] when I win a race or something bad [happens], but this moment [I am] still considering the options that I have and again I am sorry I create this expectation for not much [news].”
The Spaniard hoped to have some news this grand prix but he reiterated that he is still working on the ‘several’ options he has – not revealing any of it, whether he will continue in MotoGP or switch to World Superbike.
Pedrosa also cleared that there will be no news regarding his future during the grand prix as he wants to fully concentrate on the race after admitting that his Mugello weekend was hampered due to overthinking about his end of term with Honda.
“At least I would like to focus on the GP, of course today it looks like an extraordinary press conference but no I would like to focus on the GP and in the days after the GP….would not like to think about these things when I am competing.
“Because that would be not good for concentration, so my aim is to do a good weekend. Last time in Mugello was very hard. Yes, one part was this [news]. Obviously, I struggled a lot with the setting of the bike [as well].
“I had something wrong on the bike all weekend and we couldn’t see what was wrong. Then finally Saturday we find something and then I suddenly was in warm-up again back to inside the Top 10.
“Something was wrong on the bike but at the same time something was also going in the head. With the let’s say bad set-up or whatever was wrong on the bike, I could do a little better if you are not overthinking but I hope this weekend I can handle in a better way.”
Amid the media speculation that Pedrosa will retire, it looks like he still has at least one option for the next season – it could be riding for a satellite Yamaha outfit, the option which was given to Lorenzo as well.
