Dovi’s Ducati
Dovi reveals why he lost out
When Andrea Dovizioso beat Marc Marquez in the seasonopening Qatar Grand Prix he must’ve thought he had a good chance of winning Ducati’s first MotoGPcrown in more than a decade.
But it didn’t quite turn out like that. The 32-year-old Italian lost his way after Qatar and it wasn’t until after the summer break that he turned things around. Dovizioso took one victory and one podium from the first nine races and two victories and four more podiums from the next eight.
So what went wrong?
“It was a mixture of two things,” says Dovizioso, after his sixth season with Ducati. “We took a lot of races to find a good base setting because Michelin changed the rear tyre a little for 2018; enough to create a difference. Plus, at some races we used the aero fairing, but at other races we didn’t, which wasn’t good because we had to keep changing the settings and my riding style. AfterBarcelona in June we decided to keep the aero and work on getting the set-up right and I was also working on my riding.” During 2017 Dovizioso had been the master of rear-tyre management, which is why he won so many races, but Michelin’s softer 2018 compounds had him running out of grip too early... until August’s Brno GP where he won his second race of the year.
Dovizioso has a very studious approach to his racing. He doesn’t so much ride around problems like Marquez, he sits down with crew chief Alberto Giribuola and works out how to fix them. Managing rear-tyre life was an even bigger deal in MotoGP during the 2018 season, so it took detailed work on the electronics and suspension to get things just right.
“When we started winning again everybody thought we had changed something big, but when you are already at a good level it’s impossible to change something that big,” he explained. “Our better results came from analysing and working on all the details to make some small changes everywhere. Also I adjusted the way I rode, mainly my lines and the way I open the throttle. But it’s very difficult; very, very, very, very difficult.”
The rivalry between Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo became very bitter as the 2018 season unfolded. This is one reason Ducati and Lorenzo split. However, Lorenzo did help Dovizioso; or at least his data did. “It was very positive to study Jorge’s data, because there’s always something special in the things he does on the bike. He rides differently to me, so in some corners he was better than me, so it was nice to study that and work out how he was doing this.”
So will Dovizioso miss Lorenzo next season? “In one way, yes, because I will miss seeing his data. In other ways... for sure, no!”
Once the former 125cc world champion knew the 2018 title was out of his reach he focused on pushing forward development for 2019.“This year our bike improved a bit everywhere, so we were more competitive at everytrack. We raised our limit a bit, but our DNA remains, so in the middle of the corners weare still a bit slower than our rivals, so this is where we have the opportunity to improve for next season.”
‘We are slower mid-corner so that’s where we can improve’