Dani Pedrosa: “That’s why I said no to Ducati.”

The Spanish centaur revealed the offer from the stable of Borgo Panigale

Former Honda centaur Daniel Pedrosa in an interview with Dazn revealed the backstory of the offer made to him by Ducati in 2009: the Borgo Panigale stable wanted to create a superpair with Casey Stoner. “I tried to assess what the team’s situation was because everyone said it was a difficult bike. Stoner’s teammates were going through a complicated moment, and Melandri had left saying he had suffered a lot.”

At Honda, things were not going so well at that time: “Since Rossi had left the team, they had lost their way. During the war between Michelin and Bridgestone, Honda was not successful with any of the projects, especially in 2007 and 2008. We were the only ones with conventional valve engines; the others already had pneumatic valves. The switch to Bridgestone tires didn’t help us either.”

In the end, the heart was decisive: “The offer surprised me because I had no plans to change. So I had to think about it. In the end it was not in the plans: my heart always wanted to race with Honda.”