Dovizioso was probably the most striking example of the economic regularization that the World Cup experienced as a result of the coronavirus. The Forli rider reached his last year of contract with Ducati in 2020, just the course in which the crisis caused by the pandemic broke out. The Italian brand presented him with a renewal offer that meant a reduction in his salary by half, a circumstance that Dovi considered unacceptable at the time, and that led him, due to lack of time, to make the decision to face a sabbatical year in 2021.
At that time, his status as the first sword of the championship – he had been consecutively proclaimed runner-up in the world three times between 2017 and 2019 – led him to commit what today can only be defined as a miscalculation. “I will only return if I have options to do so with guarantees of fighting for the title,” he said then.
Dovizioso misread the situation at the time, and after spending six months racing in minor motocross competitions, he agreed to do some testing with Aprilia.
The experience was not what he expected despite the attempts of the Noale brand and its first driver, Aleix Espargaró, who did everything possible to convince him to join the project. The traumatic departure of Maverick Viñales from Yamaha in the middle of last year caused a movement to several bands. This left a gap in the Sepang Racing Team (SRT) , the satellite structure of the tuning fork brand, which brought Dovi back to compete in the last five stops on the calendar, and speed up his adaptation to the M1, a prototype with which He already ran in 2012, but very different from the Desmosedici with which he reached his best version, and with which he competed for eight exercises (2013-2020).
Andrea Dovizioso, RNF MotoGP Racing
In the 11 races he has contested since coming off his holiday, the best result obtained by the #04 is the eleventh place he got in Portimao, at the fifth stop on the current calendar, already clad in the jumpsuit decorated with WithU . A very poor background that placed him at the starting gate of the world championship with a view to 2023, and even more so with the loss of two motorcycles as a result of Suzuki’s goodbye.
“It’s obvious that I won’t race next year. I always said that if I wasn’t able to be competitive I wouldn’t be here, because in those circumstances you don’t enjoy yourself,” agrees Andrea Dovizioso, who is currently 22nd in the points table, in an interview granted to the official website of the championship.
“At no time have I looked for a motorcycle for next year. I already know what it means not to race because I experienced it in 2021, and I am calm. But, logically, I would not want to end the season like this,” emphasizes the Italian, who has the same points in his locker (ten), as Darryn Binder, his workshop neighbor, and who this season promoted directly to the heavy bike category from Moto3.
