Pedrosa Confirmed Absent At Silverstone, Still No Date For A Return

That Dani Pedrosa would choose not to race at Barcelona was unfortunate, but not unexpected. After breaking yet another collarbone at Le Mans, just weeks after surgery to remove the plate from his other collarbone (his left one) which he broke at Motegi, Pedrosa was still not fully fit to race.

However, when Pedrosa failed to even attend Barcelona - his home round, hailing from Sabadell, just 15km from the Montmelo circuit - rumors started to circulate among the Spanish media that something more serious lay behind the Spaniard's absence. The Spanish media claimed Pedrosa had injured himself while training, while the Repsol team would say nothing beyond Pedrosa having had a "domestic accident".

Today, the Repsol Honda team announced officially that Pedrosa will also be missing Silverstone, and provided a convincing explanation for his absence. The plate fitted to his right collarbone use much smaller screws than normal, a step taken to ease Pedrosa's fears after the screws in the previous plate caused Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, blocking the flow of blood to his left arm. As a result, the injury is taking longer to heal, and Pedrosa wants to come back fully fit, rather than struggle on while not yet 100%.

Below is the press release from the Repsol Honda Team.

Dani Pedrosa will not race in Silverstone

Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa will not race in Silverstone next weekend.

Dani's right shoulder, that suffered a fracture during the crash in Le Mans, has had a plate and screws attached which are much smaller than the common ones used, hoping to reduce the chance of further vascular problems he endured after the left shoulder surgery in October last year, which forced him to remove the screws and plate before the Estoril GP.

With such a small plate and screws, recovery time is not as rapid as similar surgeries and to avoid any further complications Dani has decided, with doctors recommendations to postpone his comeback until he is 100% fit.


"After dedicating some time entirely to recover, I have decided not to take part in the British Grand Prix this week. I've done everything I could to be fit in time for Silverstone, but the conditions are not right to return to compete with guarantees. I need to feel 100% fit before I get on the bike again and to be sure I can fight for the victory, I don't want to go out there just to do laps. I've raced many times with pain and the experience tells me I'm still not ready to be competitive. I've decided not to take further risks and will instead continue my recovery process so I may return in the best possible way. It's time for me to be logical and not only follow what my heart says, or my desire to return. I want to return as soon as possible, but I want to do it when I have ability to fight to win. It's not the time yet".

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I'm missing how Repsol Honda's confirmation of a "domestic accident" correlates with their press release explanation of small bone screws causing a sluggish recovery pace.

I clearly did not explain well enough. With a weaker fixing, even a small slip (tripping on the stairs) could be enough to bang up his shoulder. It is at least more plausible.

So if it is because of the extra small plate and screws that he can't ride yet, why did the Repsol team mention the domestic accident? Was that completely made up? And why would they do that if there is a medical explanation? It seems suspect.

And that is exactly why there are so many rumors surrounding Pedrosa's absence.

I know it's still only early but Pedrosa's comment "I need to feel 100% fit before I get on the bike again and to be sure I can fight for the victory, I don't want to go out there just to do laps" really is very telling on where his mind is at.

I'm sure it's going to slow him down and possibly start his slide into retirement. At some point he has to think about his (and others) safety and whether he can go on being competitive.

If he does return, he has both Collarbones to properly heal, and a still slightly dodgy knee and wrist from last year to play on his mind. Rarely are these guys 100% fit.

I wonder if Pedrosa will sit out the rest of the year and maybe look to developing the 2012 bike instead, with the aim of a serious assault on the title next year? If he is to continue his career, surely this is his best option as his title chances for 2011 are gone.

If he leaves the development to Casey alone, then Dani will be at a disadvantage again..............and let's face it, he's running out of both luck, and chances to fight for a title.

It will be an interesting next few months for Dani, that's for sure.

But you underestimate the fierce determination these guys have to compete. Head and body will heal in unison. Over and above which sitting out the rest of 2011 is not going to help him in any way, not to mention the small matter of being contractually employed to race if fit.

I'm pretty confident Pedrosa will be out there again by Mugello at the latest. The title may be gone, but he's not done with winning 2011.

with all the injuries word is that hopper was offered a ride on both the repsol honda and the tech 3 bike that he turned down because even though his goal is to make it back to motogp he wants to remain loyal to suzuki. David do you think thats foreshadowing that suzuki may remain in motogp next year?

I've always liked Hopper for the way he rode that Suzuki nail.
We once ran into him outside his trailer. He was real good sport about posing for pictures.
When did he turn down a Tech 3 ride?
And what's this about a repsol ride? That's the hottest bike on the grid.
Wow, he sure gets points for loyalty.

He's had some lean years and I think getting a good ride in BSB is his best chance at rebuilding his career. If he didn't display loyalty to the company and Denning, I think he'd struggle to keep the deal together for year 2.

I don't think he has the options to do something like Fabrizio did to WCM and jump ship to Aprilia. Fabrizio was young enough and had less to lose.

Not everyone would agree with your loyalty angle, including the guy who 'discovered' and 'promoted' him from the beginning, John Ulrich.

His last MotoGP efforts saw him abandon Suzuki and chase the cash at Kawasaki. Where was that loyalty again? It must be somewhere around here...

I think you should really listen to the excellent soupkast with Kenny Roberts Jr.
He explains that Hopper left Suzuki because they weren't willing to accommodate him with a fairly small sum of money when put into perspective.
And Kenny also tells how hard Hopper used to ride the Suzuki, and how futile all his efforts were.

I guess when someone needs to learn a lesson in loyalty it's Suzuki in respect to their riders. Just ask Leon Haslam or Chris Vermeulen.
If they had really cared about their riders and/or winning and upped their game a little, every one of their riders would have been happy to give it his best.
But Suzuki can't decide if they want to pull out or get fully into the game. Refusing to tell your A rider who is competing for the championship lead whether you are going to support him or not isn't exactly how I would define loyalty (I'm talking about Haslam in 2010 here).
But I don't really know enough about the story with Ulrich, so maybe you have a point, don't know. But I'm more talking about the point you made about him switching to Kawasaki.

+1, looking how haslam was calling to suzuki for support in the world superbike effort against biaggi and his aprilia, he was the only rider with better posibilities for fought that crown. suzuki's didnt not take the attention to answer the calls from haslam for support the previous season, they just leave haslam alone on its own, the rest is something that all we know, he changed to BMW, suzuki's reduce the team from two riders to one and still the future of suzuki's on WSBK and GP is uncertain.

¿Maybe suzuki's plans for a total witdrawn in WSBK and GP?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not absolving Suzuki at all - on the contrary, I agree with you on that for all those riders you listed, and others.
Just because Suzuki showed (and still are) no respect for their riders, doesn't mean that Hopper was above them.
Again, I agree, Suzuki need to put up, or get out. They're not helping anyone by putting that nail on the grid every week - they're just screwing around with Bautista's career now, having screwed others over before him.
I still can't understand how Suzuki could build the gsx-r1000 bike/engine that blew every other brand away in both AMA, Aust SBK, amongst others, and yet they can't build a MotoGP engine or bike to get anywhere close to the others.
I think they make the chassis out of recycled tin cans.

Suzuki's efforts are a joke - and they are damaging their brand name greatly.

asphalt and rubber had a story saying that hopper tweeted that he had been offered those rides but he was focusing on bsb right now.

What happens if Repsol Honda terminates the rest of his contract with Pedrosa, will he then be allowed to test the 2012 bike as much as he would like? This could be a possibility if Pedrosa is thinking about not racing the rest of the season I guess.

No way would Honda or any other factory let someone test their bike without some form of contract even if it's just a testing contract with a nondisclosure clause. They wouldn't take the chance of him testing their bike without any form of contract and signing with another team and taking that information with him.

I think niels was referring to limit of 8 days of testing with 'current' riders. If Dani was to sit out the rest of the season, would he be allowed to do unlimited testing for Honda?

I suspect the answer is no, as the agreement probably states 'riders contracted for the 2011 season', which Dani would still fall foul of.

I think you misunderstood, RDawg. Honda could give Pedrosa a contract for 2012 of course, but not a GP racing contract for 2011. If Pedrosa is not a GP racer, he is allowed to test the 2012 bike as much as he would like. If Pedrosa is planning on not racing the rest of the season, this could be a possibility I guess.

It's the same situation with the current test drivers. They are not current GP racers, so they can test the 2012 bike as much as they'd like.

Dani has a contract with Honda for 2012 hence he is allowed to test the 2012 bike this year, within the allowance of 8 tests per team. Even if Honda dissolved his contract for this year, I’m sure Dorna would consider him a current motoGP rider as he has a contract for next year.

I'm of the belief that riders with relatively serious injuries should take the time out to recuperate to at least a 90% level of fitness before returning.
The recent past is littered with the fallout of riders trying to 'tough out' the problem. Smart move by Dani. Had Stoner gone for the scaphoid op immediately after it rose its head again in Misano 2008,he would have been 100% ready for the task at hand 2009 and arguably not been lumbered with the chronic fatigue issue he suffered with that year. Likewise Rossi last year. Had he done the shoulder op at the same time as he fixed the leg,he and Ducati would no doubt have got this season off to a better start.
Back to Dani. I'll miss him on the grid for Silverstone, but I would much rather see him fully fit and competitive,as opposed to making up numbers.
A physically compromised rider is a potential menace to himself,other riders and the race.
Missing a race or two is not the end of a Championship. The majority of riders have 2 or 3 DNF's per season anyway.

I agree that Dani needs to take the time to get fit before coming back. He has in the past rushed his recovery and suffered. I think he is finally seeing that this time he should wait it out. Good for him to take a stance, whether he is pressured from outside sources (team, dorna, etc.) to compete or not.

A few years ago yes you could probably miss a race or two and still have a shot at the title... not with the way the top riders are going now. Just look at Lorenzo last season, no DNF's and nothing lower than 4th position. Lorenzo demonstrated how important consistency and points add up. While I'm not a fan of Lorenzo he definitely earned it on that merit alone (we will never know the "what if" regarding Rossi and Stoner last season).

Hopefully Dani comes back (whenever) and is able to get some podiums.

I completely agree with your point of view PIT BULL. I have to say, I’ve had an internal reduction (plate… screws) on a collarbone and since the break was toward the outer end of the bone, ligaments were involved. I was just carrying a shoebox THREE WEEKS LATER and the ligament popped off and I had to have another surgery. (Any time someone comes back quick, the bone was most assuredly broken somewhere in the middle, away from ligaments.)

The point: It can be much more complex than just screwing a bone together and living with some discomfort.

The other point: To my mind the notion of being indignant of a “scandal” (as other riders have had in the media) is ridiculous unless you have some facts that he wasn’t just ..taking a domestic-crap, that caused the re-injury (AND that the rider is smarter than 90% of the people who want him to “tuff it out” and use the arm.)

Also – one good reason for using smaller screws is so that you don’t remove as much bone material, de-risking injury from another crash later in the season. I broke my collarbone a second time exactly where the screw holes were located. (The ligament snap necessitated the third surgery.)

Coming back early can have some devastating consequences to your season, depending on the specific circumstances.

Any thoughts on why Aoyama wasn't offered the Repsol ride aside from Honda just screwing him? I think it'd be interesting to see if he could do anything with that bike.

Forgive me for bringing up an already overdiscussed topic, but I think Pedrosa's continuous injuries are another proof that being small isn't always better on an 800cc or 1000cc MotoGP bike.

A lot of talk has gone into saying that Simoncelli misjudged the moment to pass Pedrosa considering he was much faster than him.

I'm a Pedrosa fan, but my first thought after the crash was that Pedrosa misjudged the moment to recover the position from Sic. It would have been better for him to stay quietly in tow avoiding any possibility of a tangle, try to keep up, and get him later on the straight using his "lightness advantage". Only problem is that then people say that Pedrosa is weak and cowardly and can't hold his own in a dogfight.

Fact is that Simo's size usually benefits him over other riders. And perhaps this is the reason why he has always been comfortable with holding his chosen line regardless of there being a possibility of contact. Contact is pretty much in his favour...

The sad truth is that Pedrosa's difficulty to stay injury free will surely jeopardize his possibility to claim a Top tier crown. In our case, we are robbed of a clear three way battle for the championship far too early on.

Any doubts that Perdosa would have challenged Stoner at Montmelo. Surely not.

As it stands the honda is so much better than anything else out there that Danis only real competition for the rest of the season looks to be Casey in that there is still a fight for top Honda to be won.. and he has to aim for that..
Has shown he has the pace for Casey in the first few races but lacked the fitness/stamina to keep it up till the end, his one win I believe further agravating the injury. Needs to focus on getting fit and fighting for the number 1 spot at Honda which is well within a fit Dani Pedrosa capabilities.