Dovizioso: "I face this season as if it were the last because I don't know what's going to happen"

January 25, 2022

At 35 years old and after the retirement of Valentino Rossi at the end of last year, Andrea Dovizioso will be the senior driver in the World Championship in 2022. That, on the one hand, has an obvious value due to the experience accumulated over two decades in the championship. On the other hand, it will push him to the limit as he faces drivers who, in many cases, are ten or 12 years younger than him.

The Forli rider spent more than half of last season away from the circuits, after not accepting the renewal proposal made by Ducati in 2020. He did sign with the Sepang Racing Team to compete in the final stretch of 2021, as advance of what this 2022 would be, in which he will compete with an official Yamaha and in the refounded RNF structure.

Dovizioso said at the time that he was only going to return if the right conditions were met to be able to fight for the title, as he did between 2017 and 2019, wearing the colors of Ducati. However, it does not seem too realistic to think that he will be in the brawl, and even he acknowledges it with a small mouth.

“It will be complicated because the level is very high, and because we still have to know where our bike will be compared to the others,” agreed the Italian in the presentation of his team.

Dovi’s contract with Yamaha and RNF only contemplates, from the outset, the exercise that will start on March 6, in Qatar. Looking further, at this point, doesn’t make sense for #04.

“I face this season as if it were the last because I don’t know what will happen. Everything always depends on the results. If the results are good, [continuing] won’t be a problem. I don’t have a contract for next year because I don’t want to have one, the Everything will depend on the results, and those will come if I feel good with the bike”, added Dovizioso.

Always cautious when asked for forecasts at this point in winter, the Yamaha rider believes that there is a cast of riders who, based on what has been shown so far, will start with a slight advantage over the others, a circumstance that at one stage in the that things are so tight, it may make a difference.

“I don’t have a single name, but I think there are some riders who have half a point more than the rest. They are Pecco, Marc, although you have to know what their situation will be; Fabio and Jorge Martín. But that does not necessarily mean that they will go play with each other,” he clarifies.

Of the last five stops on the calendar that he played in 2021, his best result was the 12th place he won in Valencia, the test that brought the curtain down, in which he finished 16.5 seconds behind the winner (Bagnaia). After eight seasons on a Ducati, Dovizioso asked for some time to adapt to the Yamaha. The margin is already over.

“I still don’t naturally ride the Yamaha, but at the same time I think that if a bike has very marked strengths, you have to take them into account. What is clear is that this course is no longer about learning”, added the rider of the RNF, which considers the tests of this preseason a bit “misleading”. “In Sepang we will only have two days [February 5 and 6], and then we go to a circuit [Mandalika] that is new for all of us, so we will have to take the results with caution,” Dovizioso clinched.

Andrea Dovizioso, RNF Racing

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Andrea Dovizioso, Darryn Binder, RNF Racing

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Andrea Dovizioso, RNF Racing, Darryn Binder, RNF Racing

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Andrea Dovizioso, RNF Racing, Darryn Binder, RNF Racing

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On the bike of Andrea Dovizioso, RNF Racing

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Andrea Dovizioso, RNF Racing