Andrea Dovizioso is the one who, this weekend, will do everything in his power to get in the way of Marc Marquez in a Japanese Grand Prix which can offer him his fifth world title in MotoGP. For that, he won't have to let go more than two points before heading off to the next meeting in Australia. But it will only be, a priori, to delay the deadline and avoid a Honda party at home with his Ducati. So much so that DesmoDovi already has the lead in 2019…
And for good reason: next year, Dovizioso will be the sole master on board at Ducati. He will have a new teammate, Danilo Petrucci, whose mission will clearly be to help him and not to cut corners for him. His current stablemate, Jorge Lorenzo, will then have settled at Honda alongside Marc Marquez, for a shock duo.
A physiognomy that DesmoDovi comments on as follows: “ on paper, it appears that HRC will be the best possible team in 2019. But that doesn't mean she will be the strongest. Every year is a challenge, we start from scratch, and it is said that when we were the best last season, getting back into the next season is always harder. You have to adapt to a new context. But what is certain is that as far as we are concerned, at Ducati, we will start much stronger than what we were at the start of this year. And having two drivers able to fight for the title is certainly positive, but it also creates tension and increases the risk of errors. ».
A strength which will reside more in the GP19 than in the possible weaknesses of a pair made up of drivers who will be fierce rivals within the Honda box: “ I'm happy, because last year we weren't so close to Marquez. We took a big step forward, we did essential work on the tires, electronics and chassis ».
He finishes : " after the mistakes and falls at the start of the season, we changed strategy, we started to work in a different way because we were quite bad. The current bike would allow us to fight for the title. I don't know if it would be enough though because beating Marquez is always complicated. But our rivals now look at us differently. My Ducati has several strong points. The perfect motorcycle does not exist, however the Battle of Aragon taught me a lot of things ».
