Lewis Hamilton’s surge to the summit of Formula One has intensified the search for a two-wheel equivalent and Carmelo Ezpeleta, the most powerful man in MotoGP, is looking on jealously.

Dorna, the company that runs MotoGP, is desperate to have a leading British rider in its championship to help to sell the sport to northern Europe. Ezpeleta, the chief executive of Dorna, is so concerned that he has intervened and held talks with Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) about getting James Toseland a ride next season.

Like Hamilton, Toseland is a marketing dream. As well as the talent that has raised him to the top of the World Super-bike Championship, he is a pianist, plays in a band called Crash and has posed naked for a magazine. With Ezpeleta making Britain his No 1 target area, Toseland will probably move to MotoGP next season.

Ezpeleta hopes that this will provide Britain with a first win in the elite class since Barry Sheene in Sweden in 1981. The only question is, where will Tosleand go? Ducati are interested, but they would be able to offer him a seat only with Pramac D’Antin, their satellite team. But because Toseland will not move unless the team are capable of winning races, he will not go to one that he has turned down in the past.

Instead, he will stay with HRC, which runs four teams. Toseland cannot expect to leap straight into the factory Repsol Honda team, where Nicky Hayden, the world champion, and Dani Pedrosa, the rising Spanish star, are the riders, so the competitive satellite Honda Gresini team are the best bet.

Honda’s commitment to Toseland is evinced by the fact they have lined him up to ride in the prestigious Suzuka 8 Hours race in July. The event is hugely significant for the Japanese manufacturer, especially so this year because it is the race’s 30th anniversary, and will give Toseland a chance to press his case. Roger Burnett, Toseland’s manager, knows that his rider’s price is rising with each successful race.

MotoGP’s desire to go British is partly down to history. Britain’s record of 17 rider titles is bettered only by Italy, but after the dominance of Geoff Duke, John Surtees and Mike Hailwood in the 1950s and 1960s, the era of Phil Read and Sheene in the 1970s is Britain’s most recent golden age.

Instead, British fans turned to World Superbikes, where the machines are more similar to those available in the high street and where Carl Fogarty became a legend on the back of four titles. Neil Hodgson and Toseland have since added more. MotoGP is unquestionably the home of the elite, however, and has soared in popularity after a dip in the 1990s. Crowds of 140,000 regularly attend races, with an estimated 320 million watching on television.

“It is where the best riders are and where you want to go to test yourself,” Toseland said.

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