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FRIDAY 25TH NOVEMBER 2005

Unemployed motorcycle grand prix star Max Biaggi insists that he'll definitely still be in MotoGP next season - although the 13 times 500cc/MotoGP race winner admits that his chances of a Honda ride are effectively over.

Biaggi was dropped by Repsol Honda at the end of a disappointing 2005 season, in which he scored just four podiums, with HRC so upset by his criticisms - and speculation of unfair treatment - that even millions of dollars of Camel money couldn't secure him an RC211V for 2006.

To make matters worse, former employer Yamaha won't take him back - while the factory Ducati, Suzuki and Kawasaki teams have all completed their 2006 rider line-ups. However, the Roman remains defiant:

"I'll be there. It's guaranteed," ANSA reports the 34-year-old as saying during a photo shoot in Milan. "I'm looking at various possibilities and I'm sure I'll make it. It's probably not going to be Honda but I'll definitely be on the track."

Biaggi wouldn't speculate further, but the Italian media continue to suggest that a third Kawasaki - funded by Camel - is his most likely option for 2006. With Camel also thought to be still negotiating with Suzuki, a third GSV-R is also not out of the question.

Meanwhile, one thing Biaggi did rule out was retirement: "I still want to have a lot of fun in motorcycling, something I didn't manage to do this year."

Biaggi, a four-times 250cc World Champion, has finished runner-up in the premier-class on three occasions - in 1998 with Honda and then 2001 and 2002 with Yamaha, after which he switched back to Honda.

His first two years on an RCV, at the Camel backed Pons team, brought three race wins before he was handed the coveted factory ride for 2005.

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If he can be required to be a professional with regards to his mouth, it would be good to have him on a Kawasaki. That would answer the question of what the bike is or is not capable of, whereas with Nakano, you don't know if the reason the bike didn't podium was the bike or the rider, quite possibly Nakano would have finished only 6th or 10th or whatever on a Honda too.

However the simple fact is that factories hire riders for their racing team to increase favorable perception of their company. That is the one real reason (with results generally being the main way of it being accomplished, but it is the end, improved public perception, that is the important thing not so much the means.) When the rider can be counted on to accomplish the opposite, why pay for that?

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