Nicky Hayden will remain in MotoGP, though with the Aspar team

Even before the signing of Cal Crutchlow for Ducati in 2014 was confirmed, it was already known that the American Nicky Hayden would not continue tied to the Italian brand. This opened up a range of possibilities for Hayden, including options outside MotoGP or staying in this category if an offer came along.

There was talk, for example, of contacts between Hayden and Luccio Cecchinello’s team, pairing him with Stefan Bradl, but in the end that possibility will not materialise. The news, then, is that Hayden is going to Jorge Martínez “Aspar”‘s team but, and here is the most surprising part of the news, not to ride an Aprilia but a Honda.

The former Spanish rider had spent two years, counting this one, working with the Italian brand and its CRT bike. For 2014, these bikes will evolve into customer racing bikes, which will continue to be derived from the major manufacturers and inferior to the factory or satellite bikes, but with the hope that the differences will be smaller. And this is where the agreement with Honda comes into play, which will bring to this team the bike that Casey Stoner has been testing at Motegi.

So Aspar changes brands and also changes riders, since neither of the current two, Randy De Puniet and Aleix Espargaró, will continue. The Spaniard’s future, at least, is secured for one more year in MotoGP, since he is moving to the Forward team to ride a customer Yamaha racing bike, in exchange for paying about 600,000 euros to leave, of course.

Aspar’s new MotoGP team will therefore have a world champion like Hayden, which guarantees it a certain prestige and a certain prominence, and another rider yet to be confirmed. The name of the other rider is expected to be confirmed in the coming days, with Japan’s Hiroshi Aoyama as the main candidate.