Dovizioso: “I haven’t adapted to the Yamaha, and it’s hard to change now”

Following the announcement that he will retire from MotoGP after the San Marino GP, Andrea Dovizioso has met with journalists to explain his decision during a press conference, in which he also talks about the imminent British race.

It’s more difficult to make changes to the MotoGP today

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“I’m a rational and self-critical person”, starts Dovizioso, “and so there always needs to be an important reason for doing something. Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to adapt well to the Yamaha to be able to score certain results. I’d have liked to work on specific structural aspects of the bike but there hasn’t been chance during the season.”

“I have a good relationship with Yamaha”, continues the Italian, “I’ve been open and have had meetings to try and understand the intentions and on what they want to work. It takes time to make big changes to the bike in MotoGP and there’s no opportunity to do that, despite my experience. And so, when you see you’re unable to be very competitive, your mind starts mulling things over and this led me to my decision.”

“When I arrived at Ducati, you ran the races in a certain way and teams were structured differently, there’s been a huge change between then and now”, adds the Yamaha WithU RNF rider. "The Ducati I rode in 2013 didn’t have a good base and there were countless limitations. The Yamaha, which is the world championship winner and the current championship leader, is a unique bike, different to how it was in the past. It’s well balanced and linear, not difficult, but you have to ride it in a particular, extreme way. Quartararo rides like that, he’s able to exploit the positives and be quick without being too bothered with the bike’s negatives”.

Dovizioso: “A carefully considered decision, I was already leaning that way”

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How did you feel the day you made your decision?

“I’m rational, I’m not instinctive, so I didn’t just wake up one day and make this important decision just like that. I’ve thought it over, there’s been no massive change in terms of my reasoning. I was already leaning this way. When I made the definitive decision, I felt ready. Retiring isn’t an aggressive move, I already tried it out last year. Let’s call it a ‘soft’ retirement.

When your colleagues retired (Stoner, Rossi, Lorenzo), what did you think? And now that it’s your turn, can you better understand their decision?

“As always, until you find yourself in the other person's shoes… But I didn’t really have any opinions when they made their decision, it’s a personal choice. We talk, we think we know it all but, in the end, until you find yourself in the same situation, you can’t imagine certain aspects.”

What did you think the first time you got back on the M1?

“At first, the ergonomics were complex. With short levers and the fact I’m small, it was a lot more problematic for me to move on the bike due to the width of the frame. In the races, I understood the issue of irregular grip, but I didn’t have the situation under control in the first race.”

Translated by Heather Watson

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