Before leaving the MotoGP, West urged his team to change something in bike's setup if they want to progress in the upcoming season. Also, the Australian advised replacer Marco Melandri not to get his hopes up for 2009 as Kasawaki are not a team to put your money on in the near future.
“I hope Melandri doesn't come to Kawasaki too fired up, because he'll quickly realize that if Kawasaki don't change radically, he will again be at the bottom of the points table. Kawasaki's situation is embarrassing, as has been my situation throughout the year”.
“I thank Kawasaki for having given me the chance to race in MotoGP, but they must do something otherwise they'll never come out of it. With our bike we've never been able to use the tires used by Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner. I tried to at Brno, and I would have liked to use them at Misano, but we weren't able anymore. We use a front that no one else uses. Perhaps only Suzuki are in as bad a shape as us,” said West.
The Australian is currently 18th overall in the riders' classification, with only 50 points under his belt this season. His best performance in 2008 was a 5th place finish at Brno. His teammate John Hopkins rests 2 places higher in the standings, only 5 points more than West. In the constructors' classification, Kawasaki has the lowest-scoring record in years, bottoming the table with only 86 points overall.
Team Green has already announced their riders' lineup for 2009, with Marco Melandri joining Hopkins for a two-bike effort in the upcoming season. A third ZX-RR is unlikely to compete next year inside the MotoGP unless Kawasaki finds a sponsor for it and runs it as a satellite team.
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