MOTOGP » Kawasaki ponder dismal weekend

Not sure that kawasaki have got the right riders. Only hope that Marco can make a difference, although not having spent much time in a factory team, I''m not sure how much development feedback he can give.

Calvin, I'm afraid you're right: Melandri has been unable to get something out of his D16, although his bike is often the fastest in the speedtraps, and Stoner and Elias are showing that it is fast not only un the straights. Hopper os a hard charger but completely unable to develop a race bike, so next year will be another waste of money for team green, and even more humiliation, because Melandri will cost more than Westy.

What more proof do you guys need that the bike is off the pace, not the riders? Ant & Hopper had identical race pace, raced in each others pockets & complained of the same issues with the bike.

The really pathetic part of all this is that Kawasaki team management seem as clued-up as Calvin, and by plugging in yet another rider hope for a miracle performance cure.

The entire Kawasaki engineering staff should be sacked, but before they go they should be forced to line up in front of the riders, past and present, and made to apologise for wrecking their careers.

Whith the story around Hopkins being drunk and taking to hospital in coma during the night of thursday friday, the Kawasaki boss must wonder how they could ever hired someone like this, there is riders who just don't care, hard to beleive at this level.
Kawasaki needs professional riders then things can start moving forward.

I guess someone is thinking the same.

If someone thinks ******** and drinking is more important than racing he should not be a motoGP rider
Posted by Jan Thiel - Unregistered (14 hours ago)

Patrice... Can you point us to the trustworthy & verifiable source of comments re Hopkins.

Kawasaki could throw 100 million at that team/bike but i can't see it bringing success.What i feel they needed to do for next season was to sign a good rider with plenty of motogp experiance such as edwards or capirossi who have riden many different motorcycles.The whole team is just not good enough they are supposed to be a factory backed outfit but on occasions seem to be no better that a team that is riding around on machinary thats out of date.Now all year hopper and west have complained about rear end grip,and what will be next years solution give the bike more power so its probably ever further off the pace,as many people have seen in wsbk the zx10r's motor is good but not the chassis

Patrice, what a load of ********.
Put up or shut up!!
Armchair racers know it all.....haha

You car'nt completly blame kawasaki here or maybe you can, but its the riders and chief engineers that give the data and requirement for them to develope the bike. You only have to look at Yamaha, Honda has been going know where since Val and Gerry split.

(30 agosto 2008) Gazzetta dello Sport

Hopkins insegue la moglie scappata


La bella Ashleigh torna negli Usa dopo una lite. E lui...
MISANO ADRIATICO Una storia d' altri tempi per un pilota speciale, più fuori dalla pista che sulla Kawasaki. Ieri mattina John Hopkins non ha girato «perché nella caduta di Brno ha riportato un trauma alle costole che si è riacutizzato». Arrivederci al pomeriggio, dopo un trattamento antidolorifico che alla Clinica mobile però nessuno ha fatto: i medicinali, invece di migliorare la situazione avrebbero provocato al pilota stanchezza e sonno, mettendolo ko. Le voci dicono invece che il motivo del forfeit sarebbe una violenta lite con la moglie Ashleigh, che sarebbe tornata negli Usa. «Ha avuto un problema familiare ed è dovuta andare a casa», dice il ds Bartholemy, sottolineando come questa sia la «versione ufficiale». La realtà sarebbe appunto una fuga per recuperare l' amore della bella e intrigante connazionale, che ha sposato in pompa magna a gennaio. Anche con la precedente fidanzata i rapporti erano stati burrascosi, con eccessi di alcol nel dopogara. Di recente Hopkins aveva messo la testa a posto anche grazie al matrimonio. Con miglioramento di risultati. Ma ora... f.f.
Falsaperla Filippo