It has been reported that Kawasaki will be confirming their future plans in MotoGP this week, as speculation over the last few days has suggested that they are about to withdraw from MotoGP 2009, leaving their riders John Hopkins and Marco Melandri without rides.

Hopkins, intenviewd by cyclenews.com said: “I heard it’s up in the air, but I haven’t heard anything confirmed yet.

“I got some calls from the team manager [Michael Bartholemy] and he said that everything could be up in the air as to whether they run it or not, but nothing has been confirmed. I don’t know what it would do to me. I’m really not sure.

“I’ve been talking to my managers and seeing what the plan is and they’ve been on the phone to Japan trying to figure it out as well. Right now I’m still contracted to them so I’m not sure what the plan is.”

Melandri is likely to be the rider that may suffer the most from this, despite being a proven winner and arguably a more talented rider than his team-mate, he doesn’t have the sponsorship that John Hopkins would bring to another team – Hopkins is sponsored by Monster Energy Drinks. Melandri could also have burnt his bridges by previously turning down a return to Honda Gresini in favour of Kawasaki (and there’s no way he’d be going back to Ducati).

There is speculation that Dorna are talking to Jorge Martinez’s Aspar team to persuade him to run the Kawasaki team. Dorna will want to keep the bikes in the series, as Kawasaki’s depature would leave only 17 bikes on the grid and 4 manufacturers for 2009.

Until a full announcement is made we’ll leave you with the statement that John Hopkins posted on his personal website:

“As you all know, everything is up in the air and people want answers. Everything from here is now in my manager’s hands. I have read nearly all articles posted and find it absolutely crazy how people are stating that I have announced this/or said that, when in fact I have avoided ALL phone-calls from the media until time permits.

“There will be an official press release held very soon, where we can confirm or deny all rumours. I will let you all now as soon as I get the go ahead. I just wanted to say thank you for all your support through this year and now. Will keep you posted…”

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