Dovizioso: "If I'm here it's because my goal is the title"

Despite the results in the last part of 2021, Andrea Dovizioso keeps his sights set on winning the MotoGP title, something he will try in 2022 after the sabbatical year he took this season until he returned to the Petronas Yamaha team.

Ducati ‘s leader for a long time, the Italian was instrumental in bringing the Desmosedici back to the forefront and becoming a title contender. After two podiums in 2014, five the following year and the first victory at the end of 2016, he starred in three seasons of fierce battle with Marc Márquez, being defeated three times by the #93 . A complicated 2020 made him fall to fourth position in the championship, with only one victory and, above all, a resounding divorce from Borgo Panigale .

After leaving the paddock at the age of 34, Dovizioso showed an iron determination not to stop racing without glory, to the point of rejecting any offer that he did not consider a winner and risking seeing that his sabbatical year could turn into a definitive retirement. The conflict between Yamaha and Maverick Viñales unexpectedly left a place free, which the #04 quickly took advantage of.

Although on his return he usually occupied the back of the grid, with a bike from more than two seasons ago, he always remained focused on his goal of fighting for the title in 2022 . Having completed the first races with Yamaha, Dovizioso believes that he cannot yet be considered a contender next season, but his determination is clear.

“I can’t talk about the championship when I still haven’t achieved results that allow me to be in the front,” said Dovizioso, who in 2022 will already have an official M1. “I’m not in a situation where I can talk about certain details. But if I’m here it’s because my goal is this. I don’t have any other goal, I’ve never raced in MotoGP for anything else, least of all at 35 years old. Right now I don’t it makes sense to talk about it. However, it is for that goal that I am working.”

“I haven’t been able to say ‘no’ to something I wanted in the past, so I’m going to try,” he added, referring to his first spell with Yamaha in 2012 with the Tech3 team, where he had no official bike.

Dovizioso sees “huge room for improvement” with new Yamaha bike for 2022

In five races with the Yamaha, Dovizioso only collected 12 points, often being at the bottom of the standings. However, the rider from Forlí says that his results, very weak compared to his goals, do not reflect what may happen next season with his change of bike.

“When you’re in this kind of championship, where everyone is fast and close, you lose speed and acceleration and you can’t brake like the factory team because the bike is different. And at the same time you have to learn to take the bike, it’s normal to be in 19th or 20th place in each session”, he pointed out.

Last month, when he was able to get on the official Yamaha at the Jerez test, he checked the progress of his development compared to the 2019 version that he rode this year.

“In general, it is in line with my expectations, it represents progress,” he summarized. “The sensations were good, positive. The bike is very good at the entrance [in corners] and we stayed with that positive aspect. The braking is definitely better and it was important to notice it.”

“With this bike we never felt anything negative when we tried adjustments, whereas with the 2019 we couldn’t make any changes because every time we tried something it made it worse. So it’s positive,” he commented.

“We have a different engine, a different chassis, so it’s not easy for me to separate everything and understand everything in detail. I was struggling coming out [of the corners]. I don’t have all the answers, but there are certainly reasons. I think there is a lot of room for improvement.”

“The base of the bike is very good, but I still have to understand some limits. Especially because with the 2019 bike I have never crashed, I have never given my best at the entrance [of the corner], because that is the strong point of the bike. I’m still discovering the bike, there’s definitely room for improvement and I still have to change some things that I’m doing.”

(Click on this link or scroll through the images to see the photos of Andrea Dovizioso at the Jerez MotoGP test in November)

Andrea Dovizioso, RNF Racing