He was banished back to the Red Bull Rider Academy before Stoner and Marquez were on the Repsol Team, I believe. I think Honda maybe felt that Puig's influence on Pedrosa wasn't what they wanted, and felt like making a change might improve Pedrosa's chances of success. Nothing changed.
McPint posted on twatter: John McGuinness Retweeted Repsol Honda Team Fantastic, how it should be I got given a second hand Africa twin 2 years ago and now they want it back!!!
Puig was DP26's manager and then HRC hired Puig as the Repsol Team Manager last year. Puig had nothing to do with MM93 being on the Repsol team. Probably the reason that he dumped Dani for JL99 though.
yep. "As HRC Advisor, Puig served as Director of the Asia Talent Cup and British Talent Cup from 2014 to 2017" https://motogp.hondaracingcorporation.com/staff-member/alberto-puig/ Wasn't he also the manager of Casey Stoner or "found him." The #25 was part of the series he was in with Dani, where Dani was #26 before coming into MotoGP. I remember reading something like that in Casey's book.
because Hayden to that point was 3 years in and had 1 win. he was supposed to be the future. as for not getting it done. 27 wins and getting steam rolled by Super sic on your way to the championship is not bad.
The way he was banished I thought this dude was on the outs. I strongly suspect he had compromising photos of top Honda executives. How the fuck else could he worm his way into being the team director?
It was my understanding Pedrosa fired Puig as his management years ago, coinciding with Puig going into management over the Talent Cups. Then, later, Honda brought Puig into the MotoGP team. Awkward!
That is actually what I thought but the way he said it made me think like he doesn't play the championship game the same way others do. For example, some riders will see they have a good point buffer and take it easy a few rounds so they won't go all out in those races, not the case with Stoner; from what I remember at the time it just stuck with me that he didn't play the points game. I agree with you, it's the championship that matters even if you end up winning it without actually winning a single race.
As a die-hard NH69 fan, it hurts me personally that this is factually accurate. Fun story: I gave an old friend who's also a die-hard CE45 fan a DVD copy of the immortal 2002 Imola duel between Edwards and Bayliss and casually asked him, "Say, wasn't that Colin's last pro-level race win?" For the record, I'm a huge CE45 fan, I've just always liked Nicky better.