Photo: motogp.com
According to rumors in the Spanish sport media, Dani Pedrosa has allegedly asked 8 million euros ($10.92 mil) to hang his Repsol Honda leathers and hop aboard of a factory Suzuki motorcycle in 2015. While this rumor is still to be verified, other sources already claim that both team boss Davide Brivio and chief engineer Shinichi Sahara have said that such a paycheck is out of Suzuki’s budget.
Honda apparently operated some serious salary cuts for Pedrosa, and if we are to believe motomatters, his pay check went down from €6 mil ($8.2 mil) to a quarter of this sum, even though he’s in for quite a generous bonus plan for winning races or the championship. While Dani Pedrosa has always been a modest rider, maybe too modest according to some, if this turns out to be true, it’s really interesting to see what will happen on the grid, both in terms of racing determination and leather colors.
With Marquez already signed for two more seasons and Rossi openly speaking about a prolonged stay with Yamaha for two more seasons (and riding significantly better) than in 2013, Pedrosa kind of joins Jorge Lorenzo on the list of riders possibly thinking to change teams. Until now neither Yamaha, nor Lorenzo spoke a word on what’s going on contract-wise, but half-season is drawing near and new contracts are also to be announced after the summer break.
While the salary Pedrosa reportedly asked from Suzuki is not only bigger than what he seems to have been receiving from Honda, his presence aboard Hamamatsu machinery is not a guarantee that the combination will be a winning one. Still, it may be that the significant sum is some sort of insurance for Pedrosa, in a way that Suzuki paying him this money is an indication that it is also willing to spend massively to develop a bike that rivals Honda and Yamaha.
Suzuki is head-hunting for the best rider its budget can get, and Brivio said Hamamatsu knows that only a top rider will be good enough to develop the new XRH-1 machine and prove it is truly competitive. Remains to be seen how much is Suzuki willing to pay to have both in 2015.
With Marquez already signed for two more seasons and Rossi openly speaking about a prolonged stay with Yamaha for two more seasons (and riding significantly better) than in 2013, Pedrosa kind of joins Jorge Lorenzo on the list of riders possibly thinking to change teams. Until now neither Yamaha, nor Lorenzo spoke a word on what’s going on contract-wise, but half-season is drawing near and new contracts are also to be announced after the summer break.
While the salary Pedrosa reportedly asked from Suzuki is not only bigger than what he seems to have been receiving from Honda, his presence aboard Hamamatsu machinery is not a guarantee that the combination will be a winning one. Still, it may be that the significant sum is some sort of insurance for Pedrosa, in a way that Suzuki paying him this money is an indication that it is also willing to spend massively to develop a bike that rivals Honda and Yamaha.
Suzuki is head-hunting for the best rider its budget can get, and Brivio said Hamamatsu knows that only a top rider will be good enough to develop the new XRH-1 machine and prove it is truly competitive. Remains to be seen how much is Suzuki willing to pay to have both in 2015.
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