The 2022 MotoGP World Championship reported back on Thursday with an announcement of its retirement from the summer break. Andrea Dovizioso drives the third to last race of his long MotoGP career on Sunday.
After the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Dovizioso will only contest the Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg (21 August) and finally his home race – the San Marino Grand Prix in Misano (4 September). Then the experienced Italian ends his last World Championship season prematurely and hands over the 2022 Yamaha of the RNF team to Yamaha test rider Cal Crutchlow.
After Yamaha announced Dovizioso’s forthcoming resignation on Thursday afternoon at Silverstone, the protagonist spoke in detail about the motives and his future plans in his media round in the evening.
“Of course it’s always difficult to make a decision like that after 20 years,” says Dovizioso, looking back on his entire World Cup career. It began on a full-time basis with the 2002 season in the 125cc class, after he had completed a wildcard campaign the year before, at the 2001 Italian Grand Prix in Mugello, making his world championship debut.
Dovizioso primarily made his decision not to finish the 2022 MotoGP season, but to end it six races earlier, but of course coordinated it with Yamaha. “It’s okay, I’m relaxed,” he assures and says: “Now is the right moment for this decision.”
Three races to go: Dovizioso thanks Yamaha
“I want to say thank you to Yamaha and the [RNF-]Thank you to the team because they supported me to the best of their ability and understand my decision. This is very important to me. I was able to talk to them about my situation in a relaxed manner,” said Dovizioso.
“If you, as a racing driver, are no longer up front on the track, then your thoughts begin to circle. That’s the moment when you realize that it’s time. And that’s exactly why I made this decision,” he explains 36-year-old Italian, whose greatest successes in the premier class were 15 Grand Prix victories (Donington 2009 on Honda to Spielberg 2020 on Ducati) and three consecutive vice world titles (2017 to 2019).
In all three years in which he was runner-up, Dovizioso fought against Marc Márquez. And the Spaniard took to Twitter on Thursday to congratulate his one-time rival on his ending professional career. “Congratulations on your career Andrea Dovizioso! It was a pleasure to learn and duel on the track with a fighter like you! #GrazieDovi,” writes Márquez.
Apart from his maiden win at Donington in 2009 on Honda, Dovizioso has taken all his MotoGP wins on Ducati. However, since his comeback in Misano in September 2021, he has never really gotten along with the modern Yamaha M1.
Why “Dovi” can not cope with the modern M1
In 2012, Dovizioso had already driven an M1 in the then Yamaha satellite team Tech 3 and finished fourth in the World Championship. But a lot has changed since then. At Misano 2021, on his first weekend of his second Yamaha stint, “Dovi” hinted that his height was one of the issues. At 1.65 meters, the Italian is the shortest rider in the current MotoGP field. For comparison: Yamaha spearhead Fabio Quartararo is twelve centimeters taller.
RNF-Yamaha was able to react to Dovizioso’s height with appropriate modifications in winter 2021/22. But there were and are other factors that prevented “Dovi” from being as competitive as he was in his best days as a Ducati factory pilot.
“From the moment I jumped on this bike, I was a bit surprised by the level of grip,” says Dovizioso, emphasizing: “That’s the area where I struggled the most. On top of that, my The riding style is not the best to develop the potential of this bike. Fabio shows race after race that you can be competitive with this bike and fight for the world title.”
“Together with the team, with Ramon (Crew Chief Ramon Forcada; editor’s note) and with Yamaha, I’ve tried many things, maybe too many things,” says Dovizioso, but does not want that to be understood as a reason for his resignation: “Even when we tried something bigger it didn’t have much of an impact. It showed me that my riding style, my approach to the tracks and the characteristics of the Yamaha just didn’t quite match.”
In exactly one month, Dovizioso’s MotoGP career will end exactly where he made his comeback a year earlier after almost a year’s break, namely in Misano. “There I will say goodbye to all my friends and all my fans with a party and a smile on my face,” he announces.
In his 2022 MotoGP farewell season, Dovizioso has scored just ten World Championship points in the eleven previous races. His best result was P11 at the Portuguese Grand Prix in Portimao in April. In the current MotoGP overall standings for 2022, he is a distant 22nd. His RNF teammate, MotoGP rookie Darryn Binder, who was promoted directly from the Moto3 class in winter, also has ten championship points.
Future: Dovizioso announces “bigger project”.
And what are Dovizioso’s plans for the future? Can he imagine further racing events apart from the motorcycle world championship? “I don’t have a big deal on the table right now,” he admits, adding, “It’s just because I haven’t tried to find anything. I think after 20 years, that’s normal. You just want to live a little differently.”
“Nevertheless,” continued the 36-year-old, “sport will continue to play a role in my life. I may not be that young anymore, but I still feel young enough to do physical activity, for example motocross. “
At the same time, Dovizioso hints that he doesn’t just want to do sports in the future: “I’ve had a dream for a larger project at home for ten years. It’s still not finished, but there’s not much missing. I can’t think about it yet because it’s still a bit early. But I’m really, really focused on this project.”