Pedrosa to announce future at Sachsenring

Dani Pedrosa has finally taken a decision regarding his MotoGP future.

However, it won’t be revealed until next weekend’s German MotoGP at the Sachsenring.

In a short statement emailed to the media this evening, Pedrosa said:

Dear all,

Finally I have taken my decision concerning my future. I want to inform everyone personally and at the same time.

For this reason, in Sachsenring I will give a press conference for this matter.

I please ask everyone to respect my decision to wait until then to make my announcement.

Thanks very much in advance

Dani Pedrosa

Having lost his Repsol Honda seat to Jorge Lorenzo, Pedrosa has been linked to the proposed new Petronas/SIC Yamaha team – but is also thought to have been considering retirement.

The fact Pedrosa is calling a press conference to announce his future arguably suggests he has decided on the latter. A move to another team would normally be signalled by a press release.

Should Pedrosa opt to hang up his leathers after 18 seasons in grand prix, the likes of Bradley Smith and Alvaro Bautista are thought to be in contention for the second Petronas seat.

Smith, being replaced by Johann Zarco at KTM, took podiums on satellite M1 machinery at Tech 3. Bautista, also a past podium finisher, rides for the Angel Nieto Team with which Petronas/SIC is expected to merge for its 2019 grid places.

The other Petronas M1 is assumed to have already gone to Franco Morbidelli.

Pedrosa – a race winner in every previous MotoGP season – has been a best of fifth so far this year and is currently twelfth in the world championship after a lowly 15th at Assen, where he admitted uncertainty over his future was not helping his on-track performance.