Suspension switch delay costly for Dani Pedrosa

Andrea Dovizioso reckons factory Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa may have made a big mistake by not switching to Ohlins suspension when he had the chance last August.

HRC gave Italian Dovizioso and triple world champion Pedrosa the option to move from Showa suspension from the Brno GP onwards last season.

British GP winner Dovizioso did opt to run Ohlins on his factory RC212V machine, but Pedrosa shunned the chance and continued to race with Showa.

The extra time on Ohlins seems to have been a massive benefit for Dovizioso, who has been top Honda rider in winter testing and happy with the potential of the 2010 RC212V.

In stark contrast though, Pedrosa has found the switch to Ohlins a nightmare since he first moved at the Valencia test back in November.

Pedrosa has been unable to find any confidence with Ohlins and at the last test in Qatar recently he was languishing down in a shock 13th position.

So was it a mistake for Pedrosa to continue with Showa last season?
“I wouldn’t say it was a mistake but when HRC proposed this I had no doubt,“ said Dovizioso.

“It has no sense to continue with something that you know you won’t have next year. Last year all the races I did with Honda I was fighting the bike and I couldn’t ride it how I wanted because of the pumping.

“From last year in Brno it was decided by Honda to go with Ohlins. And they gave us the possibility to start working with Ohlins or continue with Showa. I started immediately working with Ohlins because we knew it was a lot of work to do.

“I had all these problems last year but now we have all this experience and we have been working to improve.

“They chose to continue working with Showa and now they have to do all the work we have done.

“It seems Dani was really comfortable with Showa suspension because he was fast in every race.”

See the April 7 issue of MCN for a free 32-page glossy preview ahead of the 2010 MotoGP campaign.