Silly Season is well underway, with only HRC, Suzuki and Team KR having confirmed their full line-ups for 2007. Let's stoke up the silliness by discussing Marco Melandri, currently riding for the Gresini Honda team.
Marco is said to be on the brink of signing for Ducati in place of Sete Gibernau. Part of the reasoning is that Marco is a young Italian, and proven race winner, who could be groomed to replace Little Loris Capirossi when he retires.
I'm not entirely convinced by this, Loris is still wickedly fast and has shown no sign of slowing down. The way he slams the door when somebody puts their front wheel alongside him, and the way he fought back from injury, make me think that he will be leading the team for another 2 or 3 years. It seems a little early to be searching for a replacement. The huge impact of Dani and Casey Stoner this year shows just how fast things can change in a year, never mind 3.
I'm sure that Marco could easily be tempted to Ducati Corse in a couple of years' time, if need be. Of course, with the way he's been riding and winning, his price could have gone through the roof by then, and Honda might not let him go.
Having said that, Marco is not on a factory HRC bike. This isn't necessarily a handicap, as Sete showed on the Movistar Honda, but Marco could well be tempted by a factory ride.
And it could be the best possible time to swap teams. If Marco stays with Gresini, he will be riding a brand new machine, with a completely different engine (a V4 rather than this year's V5.) If he switches to Ducati, he'll be learning a new machine and engine too. Traditionally, riders take their favourite mechanics, and often engineers, with them to their new team to smooth the transition.
If the new Ducati 800 is as fast as it seems, and if Marco keeps getting faster, he might even have a shot at the 2007 title, presuming Bridgestone have a good year. (And presuming either the Yamaha 800 is slow, or Rossi is abducted by aliens.)
Maybe Marco has already signed for one of these teams, maybe not. Everybody's keeping quiet. That's what makes Silly Season so much fun.
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4 comments:
I would like to see Macho in Ducati, because I like to see Italians on Italian bikes. Also somehow I do not trust Honda: I didn't like how they dealt with Rossi and Biaggi so even though they have the best bike I am some how skeptical on the Japs
Yeah, Honda do have a strange way of looking after their top riders. The thing is that Sete did really well in a satellite team, having basically a factory bike. It all depends on the whims of HRC. Maybe Marco won't be impressed by the utterly random performance of Bridgestone tyres either.
Capirex and Melandri would be a hell of a team at Ducati, though!
Too bad, Marco signed again with Gresini. He is going to be again one of maby Honda riders. i just hope that the performance is going to be up to the expections and he is not going to similar to the HRC guys so he can not blaim the package. In Ducati a decent season to learn the machine would have had a tremendous return of image for the italian rider. Too bad again
I don't believe that Marco stayed with Honda just for the money, I suspect that they promised him a full factory spec bike for 2007 with a chance to use the latest development parts.
That's what happened with Sete a couple of years ago, so we know that HRC will do that for a quick rider.
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