‘The Ducati’s noise was beautiful but it generated fear’
Desmosedici into a Motogp winner and beating Marc Márquez. The recently retired Italian tells us about how Motogp changed during his two decades in the paddock, from two-strokes to four-strokes and from campervans to private jets
When Italian veteran Andrea Dovizioso retired from racing following the San Marino Grand Prix in early September, the Motogp world championship lost its final link to GP racing’s two-stroke era.
Dovizioso made his GP debut at Mugello in June 2001, walking into the paddock to the tune of the ringa-ding-ding of two-strokes being warmed up for action: 500cc fours, 250 twins and 125 singles. When he walked out of the paddock at Misano his ears had been battered all weekend by the roar of open-piped four-strokes: 1000cc fours, 765 triples and 250 singles.
Now that Dovizioso is gone, Motogp’s longest-serving rider is Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaró, who arrived in 2004, when two-strokes had already been banned from the premier-class and plans for the current Moto2 and Moto3 classes were already well under way. Motogp today doesn’t only sound different compared with 2001, it’s different in just about every other way. The paddock is almost unrecognisable, the riders are different and the racing is different. Some of the changes have been good, others not so. Dovizioso still remembers his first GP, when Italy had fallen head over heels in love with Valentino Rossi and the hillsides around Mugello were already tinged with yellow. ‘When I arrived at Mugello in 2001 it was like, “Fuck, there’s Valentino!”’ he laughs. ‘But I was also like that with most of the top riders.
‘I was 15 at the time and everything in Motogp was too big for me – I felt so small and I didn’t feel ready. At all. I didn’t have the speed, well, my speed wasn’t that bad, but I wasn’t ready. ‘Now the young riders in the paddock don’t look at the top guys like heroes, because everything has changed completely compared with when I arrived.
‘The biggest change is the level of the championships before Motogp. In the CIV [the Italian championship] and the CEV [the junior world championship, based in Spain] the Moto3 pace is