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The contrast between working relationships within the teams challenging for the 2020 MotoGP world championship has once again been highlighted after differing views between Suzuki’s duo of Joan Mir and Alex Rins and the at-war Ducati pairing of Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci were aired ahead of this weekend’s Teruel Grand Prix.
When asked about team orders in the pre-event press conference, championship leader Mir was adamant that he won’t be pushing for such a thing to happen while his team-mate Rins – 36 points down – still has a chance of winning the title.
“It’s useless for me to have any meetings with anyone when Alex has a chance for the championship as well,” he told the media. “it doesn’t make sense to make any plans when he still has an opportunity.”
And while Mir might be keen to see Rins continue to fight alongside him for the title with four rounds left on the calendar, Rins is adamant that, if he makes no further inroads on the points lead and the time is right, he’ll be happy to put his own results aside and work instead for the greater good of the team.
“I still have opportunities, but if they disappear then I’m totally prepared to help Joan,” he admitted. “I’ve been at Suzuki since 2017 trying to develop the bike, trying to have a perfect bike, and if I don’t have the chance to get the championship I would like him to do it for sure.”
Perhaps it’s to be expected given the close nature of Suzuki’s almost family-feeling factory team, but it’s at odds with the position of some of its championship rivals.
Previously close friends and training partners away from the track, with Doviziozo’s lobbying a factor in securing Petrucci a works ride for 2020, that particular relationship seems to have broken down following last week’s qualifying session at the Aragon Grand Prix.
Dovizioso was forced to start from 13th on the grid after missing out on the chance to go through to Q2. The fastest time in Q1 was set by Petrucci, who followed his teammate around not once but twice, benefitting from Dovizioso’s slipstream to top the session and relegate the title contender to the middle of the field on Sunday.
Speaking exclusively to The Race, Ducati team boss Paolo Ciabatti says that the team don’t consider what Petrucci did to be anything other than his job, even if it did leave Dovizioso disgruntled.
“It’s clear that Andrea wasn’t happy at all about what happened, even if Danilo didn’t mean it,” Ciabatti told The Race.
“As a rider even, if he is your team-mate and you have a special relationship with him, sometimes you concentrate only on what you are doing. Only afterwards do you realise what you did and that it meant his team-mate was out of Q2.
“For Andrea, starting in a better place on the grid would have been better given the worry everyone had about managing the tyres. It was a difficult moment between two team-mates with a special relationship, and it will be important that it’s clarified.
“It can be that between friends you have a moment where there is a clash, but the best thing is to let it go down over a few days and then explain what you meant to do. That hasn’t happened so far, but it has to because it’s better for everyone.”
However, it’s clear that Dovizioso won’t be the one to initiate that conversation, based on the harsh words he had to say about the situation this evening.
“It’s not me who has to say anything,” he told journalists in Italian. “What happened happened, and everyone behaves in the way they think is best for themselves. I
“f he thinks that he behaved in a correct way then OK. I have no intentions to go discussing these things, but I’m disappointed.”
