A dejected Andrea Dovizioso has made it clear he sees no quick fix for his current form in MotoGP, as he qualified a lowly 17th at Barcelona and looks set to lose his championship lead on Sunday.
Dovizioso leads Yamaha duo Maverick Vinales and Fabio Quartararo by one point, and Suzuki rider Joan Mir by four, but all three riders will start more than 10 places ahead of him.
Even before Saturday, the status of championship leader has belied what has proven to be a seriously difficult campaign for Dovizioso, which has so far yielded only one win and one further podium finish in seven races. And a split with Ducati that leaves him struggling to find a 2021 ride.
Only at traditional Ducati stronghold the Red Bull Ring (pictured above) has he looked like a genuine victory contender, and the latest bad qualifying will take his average starting place this season from an already sub-par 10.0 to a pretty ghastly 10.9.
By virtue of avoiding crashes and consistently bringing home at least some points, however, Dovizioso is the lead Ducati by 20 points over Pramac rider Jack Miller, and he therefore still represents the marque’s best shot at what would be a first title in over a decade.
“There is nothing special to do or create. We are working, we are fighting, we are struggling. This is bad” :: Andrea Dovizioso
But when asked whether Ducati had taken any special action to help him out of his current slump, the three-time MotoGP runner-up said: “What we can do is work very hard with my crew, like we did in the past. There is nothing special to do or create.
“We are working, we are fighting, we are struggling. It’s very hard, especially when already we did a lot of races and this is bad. This is bad.”
“This is bad,” he repeated for a third time, “but it’s difficult to explain, from a rider’s side, it’s difficult to explain exactly what’s going on on the bike when I have to approach the braking. But that is the problem. It’s very, very frustrating.”
Dovizioso’s campaign has been defined by his struggles to click with the new Michelin tyres which, as per his own admission, rendered his previous tried and true hard-braking style ineffective.
“You need speed to save the tyre and be strong at the end of the race. This is not our situation” :: Andrea Dovizioso
He felt he had made a breakthrough when it comes to style ahead of the Red Bull Ring rounds in August, as well as in the test between the Misano races, but admits it has not been enough.
“It’s very frustrating because it’s so difficult to brake in a right way with this tyre for me, and it’s the only reason I’m that [far] on the back,” he said on Saturday.
“On the corners, on the exit, I’m quite good but in the braking I’m bad, and when I put the new tyre in and everybody has to push, I make mistakes, I’m not able to use the potential, and it’s the reason why I’m 17th.
“In the last three years we worked a lot on the data, and we were able to improve a few things and adapt to the tyres, to the riding style, to the competitors…
“But with this tyre, on the braking it’s completely different and it’s very, very difficult for me and it’s the reason why still I’m not that fast. It’s very frustrating.”
The fact that Sunday’s Catalan Grand Prix is expected to be a race of attrition and tyre conservation could offer a glimmer of hope to Dovizioso due to his past record, but when that was put to him he said: “I really would like to speak about that in a positive way, back in the past, but the situation is completely different than the past.
“You need speed to save the tyre and be strong at the end of the race.
“This is not our situation.”
