The wheel turns quickly in MotoGP. Take Ducati for example. During the off-season, we refrained from excluding Jorge Lorenzo of the title race, even if he had left his docile Yamaha for a versatile Ducati. Then the season started and we thought a crisis was setting in for the reds with a disappointing GP17. Then there was Mugello and Barcelona, two victories signed Andrea Dovizioso who is definitely not a water carrier while making the champagne flow freely. The following ? We don't know, but Por Fuera inevitably comes out weakened by all these reversals.
Gigi Dall'Igna is more than relieved. His GP17 has found the path to success and now has at least as many achievements as his GP16 from last year. Better still, the setbacks of the competition have ideally positioned one of its drivers for the world title. No, not the one expected and poached at great expense. But the one who has been in the walls since 2013.
A situation that the Italian engineer knows he will have to manage: “ it's always a problem when one teammate is stronger than the other " recognize Dall'Igna on GP One. " But “Giogio” is a champion. He will do everything to react and we will do everything to help him so that he achieves the same results as Dovi. I am optimistic. Lonenzo understands the bike better, and we understand his requests better and better. Gradually, the results will follow ».
An optimism which contrasts with past and fairly recent points of view on the difficulty of decoding needs and the fear of not being able to translate them into reality in the current state of Desmosedici. And then, there are these last thunderous departures from the five-time winner which are just flashes in the pan: “ Jorge has always been good at the start of the race, this is the key to all his success. But when the halfway mark arrives, he disconnects two or three laps, he is a little lost. Without that, he could have been on the podium ". Both in Mugello and in Barcelona.
Now, who are we going to listen to most for the rest of this campaign regarding the development of the GP17? For Gigi, the question does not arise: “ they are both asking essentially the same thing, which is positive. We work hard, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to win in Mugello and Catalonia. We're trying different things than we did in the past. Our development includes new things that will arrive mid-season and maybe even sooner ».
Things that won’t necessarily jump out at you… “ some things invisible from the outside are sometimes the most important. For example, we brought chassis with different rigidity. Sometimes you hope for significant results from tiny things ».
The next stop on the calendar will be this weekend in Assen. Andrea Dovizioso is second in the championship, seven lengths behind the leader Vinales. Jorge Lorenzo is seventh overall with a delay of 52 points on the one who succeeded him at Yamaha.
