John Hopkins and Nicky Hayden are America’s young hopefuls in MotoGP – together with veteran Colin Edwards they make up the entire American contingent in MotoGP.
Until this year Hopkins was the ‘junior’ team member at Suzuki, riding alongside former World Champion Kenny Roberts Jr. While the MotoGP series cannot be called easy by any means, somewhat lesser expectations are typically placed on a ‘junior’ rider. If, like Hopkins, you are frequently faster than your much more experienced teammate, your team is likely to be pleased with your performance. Conversely, if you are slightly slower than said teammate, this is no more than would be expected and thus you are not considered to have ‘failed’.
For 2006, Hopkins will face an entirely different set of expectations while teamed with former World Superbike racer Chris Vermeulen. While Vermeulen is a MotoGP novice, he has come from an incredibly competitive series and possesses tons of raw talent. Nevertheless, as the more experienced ‘senior’ teammate, Hopkins will be expected to carry the team through the season and will be their main hope for good, consistent finishes. This puts much more pressure on him than he was under last season. Even worse will be if Hopkins is at any point in the season slower than Vermeulen – as the more experienced rider, the team will expect him to be faster, and will be disappointed if he is not.
Nicky Hayden finds himself in a similar situation with his new teammate, the extremely talented 3-time World Champion Dani Pedrosa. Hayden was previously teamed with Max Biaggi, a rider with a wealth of experience in MotoGP and who was long considered one of the fastest riders in the series. With Biaggi, Hayden was in the same ‘junior’ position that Hopkins was with Roberts.
Pedrosa has already shown that he has the ability to ride a MotoGP machine extremely quickly – in fact, on the final day of testing in Sepang, Pedrosa and Hayden’s fastest times were separated by mere hundredths of a second, with Pedrosa fractionally faster. The two Repsol Honda men posted the day’s first- and second-quickest times.
Despite Pedrosa’s stunning speed, the team will be counting primarily on Nicky for podium finishes and race wins this year, again placing him under supreme pressure. Add to this the pressure of staying ahead of his driven and talented young teammate and you begin to see the mental challenges Hayden will face this year.
Both Hayden and Hopkins have made impressive showings in the short time they have been in MotoGP – Hayden in particular has reached the top tier of the class, but Hopkins has done extremely well considering that he has been aboard a bike few considered truly competitive. Both riders have done nothing to make one believe that they could not, with more experience under their belts, become MotoGP World Champions. However, this season will be their toughest test yet, and how they respond to the pressure of their newfound ‘senior rider’ status we be most telling about their future success in MotoGP.
