The Spanish driver arrives at the Barcelona Grand Prix in a bad period. After his third blank result of the season at Mugello, it was announced that he would not continue with the Repsol Honda team for a nineteenth season together. An announcement must be made tomorrow at 16:15 p.m., and given the few remaining handlebars still available, Pedrosa could decide to retire, or on the contrary add to the many twists and turns of recent weeks.
Dani Pedrosa heads to Catalonia for the seventh meeting of the year, and it is very rare, at this stage of the season, not to have seen him on the podium yet. The only time this had happened was in 2015, and he had just won a third place in Montmeló. 2018 could therefore be his worst start to the season since his first year in the World Cup. It was in 125cc in 2001.
Even if all eyes will be on him because of the announcement he has to make regarding the rest of his career, the Catalan is counting on his home Grand Prix to get back on track, and what could be better than being surrounded of his loved ones to do so: “The Catalan Grand Prix is always special because our family, our fans and our friends are there. There is always a great atmosphere. »
Pedrosa knows this circuit very well, but many modifications having been made, each year the configuration has been different, which complicates the work on the settings. Nevertheless, he has the experience to come back to the front this weekend: “The track itself is very beautiful, but demanding, especially with the tires. We have to work a lot on the suspension and chassis setup to make sure we have good grip because we are leaning over most of the time. Having partly regained the original layout, we again recover the last two downhill bends, which are truly magnificent. »
