Puig

[Ranger]

Just about the most over-zealous manager I've seen in motorsport for a while. Why doesn't he just focus on managing Pedrosa instead of making enemies on behalf of the guy? Like so:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/71221

[jonny hurlock]

Just about the most over-zealous manager I've seen in motorsport for a while. Why doesn't he just focus on managing Pedrosa instead of making enemies on behalf of the guy? Like so:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/71221

total agree

imo his totally jealous with nicky is that his won the motogp championship and dani hasn't also at the moment of time nicky been on form driver at honda since indy, to me is pure jealously and hate, good luck with nicky next season at least puig isn't casey stoner manager.

[chaind]

Who does Puig think he is? He won only one (1) GP in his career, his best championship finish was 5th. I don't think he should be commenting opening about anyone, namely someone who won a championship! From the looks of it all he does is stir up crap! From what I read, even Doohan says "Perdosa's problem is the people around him".
Pedrosa hasn't even been riding the same bike as Hayden most of the season. They ride two totally different styles. Pedrosa is 12 year old girl size, where Hayden is the average adult male size. They usually use different tire compounds. I don't see how Pedrosas setups could help Hayden all that much.
Anyway how often do you hear Hayden say anything bad about anyone openly? Other than the Portugal incident?

[neninja]

Puig is a total ****

Since Pedrosa switched to Bridgestone there has been no sharing of data. In the 3 races since Hayden has totally out scored Pedrosa with 2 podiums and twice as many points.

Puig is a poisonous bloke who is disruptive and must distract Pedrosa from focussing on winning races. I'm amazed Honda don't 'remove' him from their garage as he's bad for PR in their biggest market outside Asia namely the US. I'm frankly amazed that anyone pays any attention to what he says as it usually has some sort of underhanded intentions behind it.

[NinjaMaster]

It's a shame because I like Dani but Puig's interfering and outbursts like this make me barrack for other guys against him.
Puig's attack on Hayden is bemusing and I struggle to understand what the point of it is. Especially as Hayden's form has been better since the split in the garage and the data sharing has stopped. Hopefully Nicky has a real strong 09 and leaves Alberto with egg on his face next year!

[ChrisS]

At least Nicky is out of that mess HRC calls a team, I feel sorry for Dovi

[chaind]

I suppose Hayden was copying Pedrosas settings in 2006 too! RIIGGHHTT!

[mx311]

I'd like to add a couple of things here.

Firstly, take the article and interview itself with a grain of salt because it has that whole media english translation bias to it, things not quite translated correctly and so on.

Secondly, having said that Alberto Puig is quite a controlling kind of guy and Nicky Hayden wouldn't be the first rider to have a some problems with him, just ask Toni Elias, Joan Olive and Hiroshi Aoyama. HRC could probably do with asking Alberto to take a few backwards steps but doesn't in fear of pissing off Dani Pedrosa and/or Repsol, something they cannot afford to do.

Btw, comparing Dani's and Nicky results since Indy isn't really fair, you don't just switch tyre brands and get instant results. Dani is having to relearn everything (although he's not starting from scratch thanks to Shinya Nakano). And for what it's worth, most of the results Nicky is getting is thanks to Dani Pedrosa, he's the guy who does most of the development work on the RC212V, sure that's mainly because HRC don't listen to Nicky but still. ;)

I'd like to add a couple of things here.

.

Btw, comparing Dani's and Nicky results since Indy isn't really fair, you don't just switch tyre brands and get instant results. Dani is having to relearn everything (although he's not starting from scratch thanks to Shinya Nakano). And for what it's worth, most of the results Nicky is getting is thanks to Dani Pedrosa, he's the guy who does most of the development work on the RC212V, sure that's mainly because HRC don't listen to Nicky but still. ;)

i agree to most of what you say but if i have been understanding correctly in 2006 nicky was developing the new bike and pedrosa was on the proven bike so he had all the previous years data to refer to.if that was the case then im not sure how much information they could share or if that was valentinos information anyway,so whos copying who?
in 2007 they made a bike for dani something nicky had trouble fitting on and hated so if he used his information that year im not suprised because his style and cosequently his setup probably didnt work at all.
2008 nicky couldnt wait to get on the pnuematic valve motor maybe because since dani didnt want to develop it he thought it might be the only way to get a bike made more made for him.so im not sure how much danis settings would help considering they were on different bikes.now dani is riding the new bike that i would guess was developed thanks to nicky & test riders.so who is copying who?
i feel the best off all this is nicky is leaving a team that has never taken him seriously has done all they can to sabatage his title winning year(with the help of his teammate) and all the time he has remained proffesional and has not aired his dirty laundery publicly.(which im sure there is plenty of)
maybe puig & dani should copy some of nickys set up in relation to the media!

[neninja]

HRC could probably do with asking Alberto to take a few backwards steps but doesn't in fear of pissing off Dani Pedrosa and/or Repsol, something they cannot afford to do.


The Repsol money must be a small proportion of the total cost of running the Honda MotoGP operation. I'd rather risk losing Repsol than alienate the US market which must be worth $$$$$ to Honda.

I'll be hoping that Nicky clicks with the Ducati and totally hands it to Pedrosa next year. I would however like to see Dovi do well (as long as he toughens up and stops whining whenever Toseland puts a strong pass on him)

[patnicholls]

It's a tricky one to judge - the full interview is on the motogp.com site - because of the whole issue of translation/context etc. It should also be noted that in the lower classes and outside of MotoGP - namely the Academy in Spain - that Alberto has had a large positive influence on the paddock with some of the riders he's brought in and the teams he's run. So we shouldn't be dimissing him out of hand, even though his comments seem pretty off the mark.

One of Dani's 'problems' is that he's a quiet and reserved guy naturally - he's not the naturally exhuberant Valentino/Jorge type and doesn't come out with much, which leads to problems as other people think they can do the talking for him when often it isn't appropriate. Those of us who are naturally shy know all about people doing our talking for us in normal life, let alone if you're a famous sportsman!

Alberto Puig's comments regarding Nicky and setup are pretty surprising considering Dani came up to Repsol to join Nicky who'd been there for three seasons already. Not to mention pointless, given that Nicky's on his way anyway (it simply wasn't working any more, it was the obvious move). I can't understand the slant on Nicky's character at all - 'home-spun country boy' (in the nicest possible way) would be my description of Nicky - there's simply nothing malicious about him as far as I can see.

However, it's the brief comment about Dovi - "we will treat him like any other rival" - which are arguably more hostile and surprising. HRC should be looking on Dovi's forthcoming arrival as a chance to get two young riders of similar background to herald a new dawn, develop the bike in the right direction rather than the post-Rossi era of swapping focus every year (Barros, Biaggi, Nicky, Dani with Sete and Marco in there too). Since Valentino left, Repsol Honda have taken less wins in five seasons than Casey took on his own last year - since they are still winning and podium regulars its hardly a disaster, but it's hardly 1997 (when Repsol Honda won every race of the season). Alberto should - for now - be looking at Dovi as a potential ally to get Honda going in the right direction, imho.

(although an alternative point of view - if I was HRC - might have been to say to Repsol "we're a bit fed up with this" and designate Scot as the factory team instead. Given their progress from mid-pack 125 team in 2001/2 to challenging for MotoGP podiums in 2008 as well as running a good 250 bike, all with Dovi aboard, it might be a good call)

[neninja]

Soup's response is great and pretty much sums it up for me

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2008/Oct/081010ajl.htm