Andrea Dovizioso’s debut in the colors of Petronas SRT was not exactly a dream. Seeing the Italian dream team formed alongside Valentino Rossi at the back of the grid at the San Marino Grand Prix was certainly disappointing, but the Forli driver wasn’t too surprised to be last under the checkered flag.
The three-time world runner-up finished in 21st position, long lap penalty included, but he believes that the Misano race helped him start to better understand his Yamaha M1 ‘Spec B’, after eight years on a very different bike as the Ducati .
“More than the race, we can talk about the weekend. We gathered a lot of information. We had the opportunity to ride a lot in the dry and also in the wet. It was very important, both for me and for Yamaha, to understand a lot of things. The race was good to learn and to receive information. Before the race I didn’t have the speed to stay in the group, maybe half a second, but today [Sunday] I stayed there,” Dovizioso said after the race.
(Before reading on, click on the link or on the image to see all the photos of the 2021 San Marino GP MotoGP race)
“Then I made a mistake and had to take a long lap penalty , but then my pace improved a lot and I was faster than in practice. Now I have to try to put everything in order, trying to explain my feelings to the team as best I can. At that moment I will be able to try to take better advantage of the bike’s potential.”
Throughout the season, several riders have had problems with this bike, from Franco Morbidelli, who started the championship with it, to his replacements Cal Crutchlow, Jake Dixon and Garrett Gerloff. Andrea was asked if she already had an idea why.
“I think it’s pretty normal. I don’t know how it’s different from the factory bike. Apart from that, only Fabio [Quartararo] seems to me to be doing great things at the moment with the Yamaha, but that’s something that’s too far for me in right now. My bike is special, it has several positive points, but you have to ride it in a special way. I’ll need time to adapt and understand everything well”.
“The way of using it under braking is a bit strange, but also the fact that it has improved in the last part of the race. So it is very important to try to understand everything as well as possible. I have a lot of information, but I still don’t know the bike enough to understand why certain things happen. However, during the race there were several moments where I felt the good things about the bike, but I couldn’t exploit its potential and I think that’s important.”
Then he went into detail about what he meant when he said that you have to drive in a “special” way: “You just have to look at the way Fabio drives it: you have to brake very hard and pick up a lot of speed in the center of the It’s the only way to exploit its potential, because it’s what it needs. This is special, with the other MotoGP bikes you have to ride differently. Maybe Suzuki will come close, but with everyone else it’s different.”
This Tuesday and Wednesday, Dovizioso will have two test days in Misano that will be very useful to try to speed up this learning process.
“Surely the best way to do a test is after the race. If you have to try new things or if you’re in the condition I’m in, having to adapt to get the potential out of the bike, it’s perfect. There’s a day to recover, then two days if the weather is good. I think it’s mainly the rider who has to adapt to the bike, but the team also has to be good to help you.
Finally, when asked if he thinks Quartararo is masking the problems of the M1 , he replied: “The strongest driver of any brand always masks the problems. Then it depends on the season. There is no doubt that Fabio is doing something special, because he’s the only one who has managed to understand how to get the most out of this bike. But it’s hard for me to say why, because I’m the first who doesn’t exploit it. It’s a bit early to talk about it”.
