Melandri confirms Kawasaki switch
Added on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 by Carole Nash Editor
Melandri confirms Kawasaki switch
Marco Melandri has confirmed that he will ride for Kawasaki in 2009 once his contract with Ducati ends.
The Italian has agreed to join the Japanese marquee for the new season and will team up with John Hopkins after turning down an offer to return to Gresini Honda.
Melandri has struggled in his first season with the Ducati factory team, prompting team officials to terminate his contract less than one year into a two-year deal although the former 250cc champion still hopes to impress on the GP8 for the remaining six rounds.
“I hope to get good results in the last six races of 2008, and after that I am moving to another team,” he told MotoGP.com. “I will ride for Kawasaki next year, so it’s a big change for me.
“(John) Hopkins is a very good rider and maybe he needs a stronger teammate to be a little bit more motivated. Maybe I also need this kind of company to be motivated a little bit more, because I really want to work closely together with a teammate. It will be a good experience and I am quite confident.”
Melandri had been widely tipped to return to the Gresini Honda team which whom he secured a fifth place finish in the riders championship last season although Melandri claimed that he was more impressed by the Kawasaki factory team.
“It would have been a nice option to go back to Fausto (Gresini), I had a very good time with him and he has always helped me a lot,” Melandri added.
“This year we’ve been talking together, but for me, I’ve been looking at Kawasaki and they seem very good. The engineers and people there give me a good feeling just to talk to them, so that’s what I want to do.”
