Dovizioso Looking To Stay on Honda Repsol Team as MotoGP Silly Season Comes to A Head at Brno

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One of the Repsol Honda team techs checks out the RC212V MotoGP rocket ship of Andrea 'Dovi' Dovizioso during the Indy Red Bull MotoGP round in August of 2009. Dovi signed with the Official Honda Factory squad to team with Dani Pedrosa in the 2009 season after having a stellar year on a Team Scot Honda satellite ride in 2008, placing fifth in the overall championship. He is hoping to stay on the factory squad and rumors have run rampant the last several months that he had a contract option that if he were to be 5th or better in the championship by Laguna-which he is and was-that his option would be automatically picked up with the team for the 2011 season.
But with Casey Stoner's signing to the team earlier in the summer, running three factory Honda bikes on the grid could prove to be too much even for Honda in 2011, especially considering the overall world economy being what it still is, and the amount of sponsor dollars to go around the high dollar MotoGP paddock and grid-or lack there of. Here's hoping for everyone, and especially 'Dovi,' that things start to turn around in the economy so he can get a chance to take the next step on the factory squad for a third season.
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David Emmett of the always excellent MotoMatters.com has a short interview over on his site about the current perils of the Repsol Honda MotoGP team in being able to run, or not, three full factory teams for the 2011 season.
With the recent signing of '07 MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner away from Ducati, and Dani Pedrosa having another year on his contract with the Repsol factory squad, Honda is left in a perilous position (in today's economy) of having to run three full factory squads for next season. Not that the 17 bike grid couldn't use some extra company, but the economics of running as many as seven total bikes in the series is pretty daunting in the least (including the satellite teams.) Even with the deep pockets that Honda has always been known to use over the decades, this isn't your father's economy. And for the millions that it takes to run a squad for a 17-18 race season that traverses the glove several times throughout the course of the season, is it or could it still be worth the investment? Only the Shadow knows.........check it out below to see what Dovi's position is before the MotoGP Silly Season rings the bell in Brno late Sunday afternoon.

http://motomatters.com/news/2010/08/13/andrea_dovizioso_my_target_is_to_stay_in.html
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