Drop Nicky Hayden and pick up Cal Crutchlow? Confirm or drop Andrea Iannone and sign up Scott Redding, who is clearly on Ducati’s wishlist for the future, silly season is definitely starting to heat up and getting into the thick of things, as the championship is heading towards the summer break.
Andrea Iannone, according to Italian website GPone.
com has a two year contract with Pramac, but it is actually a one year contract with an option for the second, and the Laguna Seca GP is where Ducati in the past has occasionally announced a part of their line-up for the upcoming season, and here Iannone could get his contract extension, and so could Nicky Hayden.
This is the fifth season that Hayden has been with Ducati, and despite having only two podiums to his name riding the Italian machine, he’s the perfect rider, hard-working and uncomplaining, and a dream guy for promoting the Italian marque any place in the world.
There has been talk that Ducati could ask Hayden switch over to World Superbikes (but the Kentucky Kid wants to stay in MotoGP) to make room for Cal Crutchlow – who has denied the Bennetts rumor there will be a Ducati announcement this weekend at Sachsenring – and Dorna is keen to have an American rider in the series to garner more attention in the US, especially after John Hopkins decision to take a year off to recover from all his injuries.
Scott Redding, as we said, is high on Ducati wishlist, but apparently the British rider seems to be more interested in a Honda, a could end up riding a new production Honda RC213V in Fausto Gresini’s squad according to MCN.
com or MARC VDS who wants to make the jump to MotoGP and keep Redding, is currently in negotiations with Ducati about running a factory spec Desmosedici, but is also talking about buying one of Honda production racers.