MotoGP | German GP: Puig (Honda), “Pedrosa had the chances of him”

MotoGP GP Germany – On the Friday of the German Grand Prix, ninth stage of the 2018 MotoGP, Alberto Puig, Director of the Repsol Honda team, broke his silence for the first time since the announcement of Jorge Lorenzo's hiring for next year.

In a conference held within Honda Hospitality, the Spaniard spoke both about the 'new' rider and about Dani Pedrosa, who announced his retirement at the end of the season last Thursday.

“After 13 years in the team, we wanted to see other possibilities, Lorenzo is a MotoGP champion, a very interesting option, we just wanted to see other options, Dani has had a long career in Honda, with many opportunities and we decided to try another pilot". Alberto Puig tells the story, then adds: “Obviously the goal is to have the best riders, we had the chance and we took advantage of it. I don't know if it will be easy to manage Marquez and Lorenzo, but if you want something simple, you don't create a team. We didn't talk to many people, we had casual conversations and made the right decision. Hiring Lorenzo was the brand's decision, not mine. We think he has the potential to perform well and win. You never know how a rider will adapt. It took him a long time to adapt to the Ducati and then he won two races in a row. We hope it can be fast, but we don't know how fast.”

Lorenzo Chapter: “We didn't care about Ducati or what they thought, the rider was there and we got him. We informed Marc and he responded in the way we expected from him. Pedrosa and Lorenzo are very good and technical, it's very interesting to have two riders with different styles, the engineers learn from the riders, we'll see what Lorenzo will bring to Honda"
Speaking about Pedrosa he then added: “Dani has had an excellent career, he leaves this paddock with a lot of things done, he made a great effort, he is very small on very large bikes, and this was his biggest problem which caused him great difficulties. But what he did is impressive."