07-18-2006, 03:39 PM
asteele2 Wrote:what I meant was that his result sheet isn't as specatacular as it could be.
It's as spectacular as it could be on that bike. No one in MotoGP faults Hopper for his results the last few years. And unless he gets a ride on one of the more serious teams (factory Yamaha team, not the Tech 3 team, factory Ducati team not Pramac d'Antin team, or a Honda team), which he hasn't been offered in the last few years, he's not going to be able to leave Suzuki.
I mean, let's look at those teams right now -
Camel Yamaha, the current Factory Yamaha team - Rossi and Edwards. Rossi has one year left on his contract after this year. Edwards will probably be around for as long as that (Rossi got him on the team and he'll probably keep him around). Maybe Hopper gets an offer when Rossi leaves, but I wouldn't expect Rossi to leave as long as he's getting serious competition from others.
Repsol Honda - Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa. Honda isn't letting go of those guys anytime soon. And if they left at all, it'd probably be because Rossi vacates Yamaha and they offer a ton of money. But even then they may not, because that Repsol Honda bike is the best in MotoGP. If you're not the best rider in MotoGP (and neither of them are right now), then I can't imagine you'll give up the best bike and lose chances of winning the championship.
Fortuna Honda - Melandri and Elias. Elias' spot could become open in the next year or two. Hopper on a set of Michelin's could mean some competition. Honda will do their best to keep Melandri around though.
Alice Ducati - Gibbers and Capirossi. Both are too good to let go. They don't have much of a career left, but they're both too good to let go.
And there's still one wild card in all of this: Max Biaggi. Unless MotoGP decides he's too old, he's still an unbelievable rider. He'd still be riding with Honda if he weren't an arrogant prick. But his worst overall finish in 14 full seasons as a MotoGP rider (between 125/250/500/MotoGP classes) was 5th.
It's hard as shit to jump teams in MotoGP unless you're Rossi. Your contract has to expire at the same time as someone elses', and then you have to hope there isn't already someone else lined up to fill his spot. Hopper can't really wake up one day and say "That's it, I'm riding an RC211V today." And worst part of it all is that it's expected that Honda will stop throwing so many bikes out there next year when they switch to 800cc engines (they've got 4 teams and 6 bikes out there right now).