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The past few days have been intense and full of memories for Andrea Dovizioso. In addition to being back on a Yamaha M1 as a replacement for the injured Cal Crutchlow in the tests in Misano, the Forlì rider was the guest of his friend Andrea Migno on the ninth episode of Mig Babol, in which he took a look back at some of the most important moments of his career.
Obviously, he could not avoid talking about his eight years with Ducati colors. "A very tough path, but one that enriched me so much and formed me," recalled Dovizioso, who in the three-year period 2017-2019 was three-time World Championship runner-up with the Bologna-based manufacturer. Seasons full of satisfaction, but also of frustration and fatigue. As the 38-year-old admitted when talking about the reasons that led him to part ways with Ducati and the many last-ditch battles he experienced with Marc Marquez.
"In 2020 the relationship was broken, for various reasons. A lot happens in eight years that you don't know about. We came close to splitting up more than once in those years, but I was so focused on getting the result that I accepted at least two contracts by agreeing to things that didn't suit me. But that was the real advantage, because it created that situation whereby we were able to fight for the championship. But then I had reached the limit and was no longer willing to swallow certain things," he said, " Can I be happy with the years in Ducati? Yes, I missed out on the icing on the cake of the title, but at that time there was Marquez in form in HRC."
Battling against the Cervera rider proved to be a tough task for the man from Forlì, who could never let his guard down.
"Battling with Marquez? It was intense, because it was his best period and HRC was still going strong, even if it was not so superior or in good shape. He was the one who put a patch on things, " he noted, "Like in the years of our battles in Austria, he was not in a condition to get to the last corner with me, however, he got there. I did a masterpiece because I read the situation and made the perfect action, but he was not supposed to be there. So hats off to him. He did something extraordinary."
Intense duels remained etched in the memory of fans and are still alive in Andrea's mind as well.
"They were three great years, but too stressful because we had great races, but then you have to draw a line at the end of the championship and he always managed to bring it home," he underlined, "The only regret was in 2018, because that was the year when we were most competitive and we could have put him in a crisis. But because of various dynamics and mistakes we drifted apart and the championship didn't stay open for long, because he created a gap that he then managed. You know when you're anxious and stressed, and you get a little out of breath? I still remember that situation in the last laps of the races in Austria, because I knew what I had to do, I knew our strengths and our weaknesses, I was trying to create a situation, but Marc at the last corner was always there and I was like, 'what the fuck am I going to come up with now?' Then it went well for me, but I remember when I had won I was out of breath and it was bad because it was a fantastic moment, but it was stressful."
It was an intense period, but it certainly helped the Bologna-based manufacturer reach the golden moment it is experiencing now.
"Is the Ducati of today the result of the one built by me? Definitely yes, but it is always the work of a team, because there is really a lot behind it. If Ducati has come to this level at this time, it is because so much work has been done over so many years, in a certain way, with so many difficulties and so many fights, which has brought continuous evolution. In my opinion, in all the projects that are so important and so big, you don't have the situation under control, but by continuing to push so hard you realize that you have advantages over your opponents, and when you can understand that and understand how to continue to evolve, you can amplify the positives, and that's how this situation of superiority was created," Andrea remarked, speaking about Ducati's dominance in the premier class: "In the last ten years, MotoGP has really changed, and in Ducati, from 2014 on, they understood that they had to create a different structure on the track and at home, with a lot more engineers, analyzing different things than they were looking at before. Now there's a lot more data, there's a lot more parameters, which if you know how to read them make you evolve in the development of the bike and help you to do so much in a race weekend. Then, in recent years, with eight strong riders pushing each other and willing to do anything to get ahead of the others, even with the bike from the year before, the level rises. Even if the bike does not improve. It is the mix of these two things that has created this Ducati dominance."
