Will McWilliams quit Stobart Honda?

Following Jeremy McWilliams' less than impressive early season in the British Superbike championship, team owner Paul Bird has been piling on the pressure for the ex-MotoGP star to perform.

And, following two retirements at Sunday's Mallory Park round - as a result of a reported poor tyre choice and a stability problem - Crash.net has received reliable information, but which is yet to be officially confirmed, that McWilliams could quit the Stobart team after a widening rift grew between the rider and team boss.

Linked to the possible vacant seat with the Stobart team are James Haydon, who will deputise for Rizla Suzuki's John Reynolds for the next two rounds but then be available and also, bizarrely, Shane Byrne - who was at Mallory Park in support of his 2003 BSB title winning Monstermob-Stobart team at the weekend.

Rumours at the event were suggesting that McWilliams and Byrne could swap roles, with the Brit coming back to the UK and McWilliams going to the Roberts KTM MotoGP team.

However, Team Roberts appear pleased with Byrne and it would make little sense to drop the Brit so early in the season anyway, especially when their new machine is yet to approach full reliability and competitiveness.

For his part, Shakey has also made clear that he wants to stay in MotoGP and, having turned down the Stobart BSB ride before signing for Team Roberts, it's hard to see why he would suddenly now want to accept it.

Nevertheless, Byrne's close links with the Stobart team mean that he would be first on their wanted list if he ever became available again, while McWilliams has a similarly close relationship with Team Roberts.

The most likely outcome, should McWilliams indeed split from Paul Bird's outfit, is surely that the Ulsterman would join the GP team as a test and perhaps wild-card rider to accelerate development, while Byrne's position as full time race rider would be unaffected.

Haydon meanwhile, would be the obvious choice for the Stobart ride - assuming the team wanted to continue fielding three riders...

More details on the McWilliams situation to follow as soon as we get them...