After the first half of the season riding the Yamaha M1 2022 of the RNF Racing team in which he has not been able, at any time, to be competitive, the 36-year-old Italian rider Andrea Dovizioso announced this Thursday at Silverstone that he will definitively drop from the bike next September 4, when the San Marino Grand Prix ends.
Dovizioso was unable to get a seat in MotoGP after Ducati did not renew him after the 2020 season, so he decided to take a gap year. Since then he has been looking for a way to return to the grid of the highest category.
Yamaha, with whom he already raced in 2012 enrolled in the Tech3 satellite team, opened the door for him to return with a factory contract and official material, but again in a private team, that of Razlan Razali .
“In 2012 the experience with the Iwata manufacturer in MotoGP had been very positive for me and since then I have always thought that, sooner or later, I would have liked to have had an official contract with Yamaha,” explains Dovizioso in a statement.
“This possibility was presented, actually in a somewhat daring way, during 2021. I decided to give it a chance because I firmly believed in this project and in the possibility of doing it well”, adds the Italian, who joined the team at the end of last season. season, due to Franco Morbidelli’s injury.
However, in all these months Dovizioso has not been able to recover the level that led him to be three times runner-up with Ducati.
“Unfortunately, MotoGP has changed profoundly in recent years. The situation is very different since then: I have never felt comfortable with the bike and I have not been able to make the most of its potential despite the valuable and continuous help of the team and everyone at Yamaha”, he argues.
“The results were negative, but beyond that, I still consider it a very important life experience. When there are so many difficulties, you need to have the ability to handle the situation and your emotions well. We did not reach the desired objectives, but the consultations with the Yamaha technicians and those of my team have always been positive and constructive, both for them and for me. The relationship remained loyal and professionally interesting even in the most critical moments: it was not so obvious that this would happen.
Some bad results that, finally, have led #04 to make the decision to stop, now definitively.
“For all this and for their support, I thank Yamaha, my team and the sponsors involved in the project for their support. It didn’t go as we expected, but it was right to try. My adventure will end in Misano, but the relationship with all the people involved in this challenge will remain intact forever. Thank you all”, concludes the note issued by Yamaha and RNF.
