http://www.crash.net/motogp/news/221234/1/nicky-hayden-visits-wsbk.html Seems to be a lot more open to it now than he ever has. Finally seeing that maybe the MotoGP tunnel isn't looking that great anymore... Would love to see him in WSBK as I think he could be competitive depending on the bike (hopefully NOT Honda unless they finally put some money into it).
At the same time, it would be a shame to have hung on for five years (or however long it's been) without any good results to leave when they finally are going to even the GP playing field some.
I don't see the pecking order changing just because of a tire swap and electronics change. The factories will still spend $$$$$ to drop the precious 10ths, and the rest of the field will be wanting.
Dude has to have tons of cash stashed away by now after as many years. I only say that because he doesn't look like the Dan Bilzerian of MotoGP blowing through all sorts of money frivolously. Plus he's been dating that Marin tequila chick for a while as well. At the end of the day I'd have to think racing is alot more fun if you are doing it for the win rather than doing it for 13-19th place and only cracking the top 10 when the stars align just right and 6 people crash out of the race ahead of you. Surprising too considering his awesome start to the year in the first couple races. I expected the new bike and team were gonna have him battling for wins for the rest of the season the way he rode at P.I.
He'd be the only Rider to ever win an AMA, WSBK, and MotoGP title. I think that would put him in his own Hall of Fame category.
This. I recently read that even the spec electrons are crazy complicated to the point that one team's electronic engineer had left and right backwards and completely mis-programmed their strategies.
Melandri? Does somebody at Yamaha have a crush on his wife? That's the ONLY reason anyone would want him on their team
ooo. i've always wanted Hayden to go to WSBK, especially after leaving ducati. i always thought he would do well there and have more fun doing it. yamaha would be an awesome choice.
I wouldn't expect him to magically show up on the podium next year, but at least the gap should narrow to factory satellite teams. Otherwise, what's the point of changing anything?
Same as always: to make the racing better, to make all the bikes more competitive, to bring costs down, etc - all with the intent of helping teams bring sponsors in (which is what keeps the whole circus running).
I didn't take your statement that he would show up on the podium IMO, once the racing involved a complexity of electronic programming, it eliminated the satellite teams from being regularly competitive. The factory teams have an army of uber nerds to handle the programming. Satellite teams have one or two?