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Written by:
Dennis Noyes
08/26/2008 - 08:45 PM
Borrego Springs, CA
(Photo:Andrew Yates/AFP/Getty Images) ยป More Photos
Unless Michelin shows up with competitive tires this weekend at the race with the longest official name in MotoGP history -- The Gran Premio di San Marino e Riviera di Rimini -- the premier class of GP racing is likely, after 59 years of tire wars, to become a single-tire series.
Scathing criticism of Michelin’s tires has come from Dani Pedrosa’s side of the Repsol Honda garage. In an unprecedented display of unilateral brinksmanship, Alberto Puig, who, in addition to other duties in the employment of both Honda and Dorna, is Pedrosa’s manager, tried to organize a protest among Michelin riders, encouraging them to pull their machines from the race at the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic.
It is difficult to imagine that Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta could have approved or countenanced Puig’s tactics, which, if successful, would have cut the already paltry 17-rider grid to a mere eleven starters.
Puig has occasionally been accused of having a conflict of interests, wearing a Honda Repsol uniform, playing a key guidance role in the Dorna-owned Red Bull MotoGP Academy, and simultaneously acting as Dani Pedrosa’s manager.
The last time I spoke to Dorna executive Manel Arroyo about Puig’s
Arroyo went on to admit that in the past he himself, on behalf of Dorna, acted as manager for former 500 World Champion Álex Criville, "But that was at a much earlier time and we were simply trying to offer good advice and management to Álex who had no professional management. Now Dorna have no part in managing Dani Pedrosa or any other rider."
And, although from an American perspective, Puig’s multiple roles would suggest a conflict of interest, the fact is that Puig’s absolute priority is to advance the career of Pedrosa, a rider he discovered when he was running the Telefónica Movistar 125 Cup. Puig clearly demonstrated at the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic that his loyalty is to his rider, because, had his attempt to organize a boycott been successful, Dorna’s image would have been almost as tarnished as Michelin’s if the seven Michelin riders (Nicky Hayden was absent due to injury) had pulled in after the warm-up lap.
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