Nicky Hayden in talks with Yamaha Tech 3? No, we don’t have a mole inside the paddock, nor is it just more silly season, but we do have a very wily and crafty Italian manager on TV.
In last night’s Griglia di Partenza where guests were Alex De Angelis, Roberto “Loca” Locatelli, Marco Luchinelli, Paolo Casoli, Gianfranco Guareschi, Arturo Merzario (a former F1 driver), Honda’s Carlo Florenzano, and Carlo Pernat and others.
After naturally talking about Valentino Rossi’s pass on Jorge Lorenzo and asking DeAngelis’s and Locatelli’s point of view, the conversation turned briefly to what we fans call silly season.
Carlo Pernat touched a few bases regarding where some riders will be probably going and he also confirmed that his hottest property, Marco Simoncelli is leaning more towards Honda than Yamaha, even going so far as to state that it’s 70% Honda and 30% Yamaha.
The manager also went on to say that James Toseland is out of Yamaha’s Tech 3 team and Nicky Hayden will not stay in Ducati and he’s in talks with Hervè Poncharal.
If Pernat’s words are true, and we’re taking them with a grain of salt, because he could be just shooting the breeze, this could open up a whole new scenario in this year’s silly season.