"7.
Lf
onda
Racint Corporarion wanB to
I lkeep Nicky Hayden ln 2007, it
wat
rel/ealed, after reports ofdisharmony wirh-
in the team surfaced.
"Basically
we
would
like to continue
this
skuataon, because this season we
8et
many
young
riders
lincluding
Dani Pedrosa and
Casey Stonerl,
who need to be brouSht
along"
Honda Racint Corporation tearn
general manager Tsutomu lshii said in
China.
"Ther€fore, this couple oI
years
we
still keep Nicky."
lshii added that no contract talk had
begun, but only because
it
was
too early.
And the most
important
consideration
was
race results, not Hayderls
popularity
whh
fans, the
.nedia,
or spgnsors.
"For
me,
consider
only race," lshii said.
"But
I'm
manater. Basically, he has maiy hns
in
the
world. That is an imponant thing for
Honda also."
As is the fact that
he comes from Honda's
bigSest ma*et.
Hayd€n is th€ numb€r-one rider on what
should be the nufiber-one bike. lshii was
quite
frdnk
in
admitting that
when
the season
began the smaller
RC2 I I V
that
Hayden rides
exclusively
wasn't ready to win.
"l
don't think so," he said when asked
if
Hayden could win on the smaller
Honda.
How many
race6 would it take?
"How many? Diflicult to sar" lshil said.
"l'4y
feeling is it's soon
comint,
Because, not
ont the machine, but
also his
heart, mentali-
ty. Now I believe
he ir
so itrong,
he can con-
centrate every lace.
Compared with last
year,
an incredible
change."
lshii wem on to say
that Hayden is a
much
better rider in the rdin
and also more consis-
tent in the dry
Last
year
"sometimes
he
drops
back," lshii said,
"but
in dis
year,
this
is
The smaller
Honda
briefly broke
cover in
Brno last year, and
then sat
dormant {or
several months. The
aim was to create a
bike with b€tter cor-
ner entry and engine
braking, while attend-
ing to chassis stilfrless,
weiEht transfec
and
stabiliq/ on the br.kes.
One area of
dispute is
whether
Hayden
was
pressured
to ride the smaller RC2llV
lshii said no -
"he
chooses his bike by himself.
Nobody
pushed
him. Now
it's
cominS
bet-
ter, better, better."
But a Honda spokesman said it was
"strongy suttested" that he ride the new
bike. ln fact, it was a fait aacompli that
Hayden would be on the
new
bike.
lt was
clear that Honda had
made
a
huge invest-
ment
in
the
new
bike
and for Hayden to
reiect it would have been a
great
loss of {ace,
especially because
it
would have been obso-
lete in the 2007 eraof800s.
lshiisaid, "Nicky
was
a bit
confused,
k is true, but - how do
you say it? - he decided to challenge this
s$son with this bike."
Teamrnate Pedrosa also had the option
of the new bike, but chose the
more
rtan-
dard RC2l lV lshiisaid. lshiisaid the
rearon
they heeded Hayden to
ride the smaller
bike is
"be
