Andrea Dovizioso warned that he and his Ducati team have still not got to grips with Michelin’s new specification of rear tyre and are expected a difficult season-opening Spanish Grand Prix.
Michelin has developed a new rear with much better grip for the 2020 season, but the tyre has prevented Ducati’s riders from being able to use the rear brake to slide the bike on corner entry – something that has become a key strategy in turning the bike’s long and low frame.
“The speed is there, but the feeling is a different story” :: Andrea Dovizioso
With a compressed season meaning less time between rounds to analyse data and understand the route around the issue, Ducati is therefore still going into Sunday’s race with much uncertainty.
“I don’t think it’s about the bike because the bike is the same as last year,” said Dovizioso after qualifying a distant eighth.
“It’s about the tyre. The tyre works in a different way – in the way you brake, the way you enter the corner, the way you release the brakes.
“We have to change, we have to adapt, but it’s not easy because the way you have to adapt to this tyre.
“It’s not too clear yet what we have to do. We have a lot of feedback, a lot of data, a lot of ideas, but in practices, we are trying lots of things to try and understand it.
“I’m not too worried because the speed is there, but the feeling is a different story and we’re still trying to find it.”
The satellite Pramac Ducatis of Pecco Bagnaia and Jack Miller were the top Desmosedicis in qualifying in fourth and fifth, with both riders’ styles proving more amenable to the bike’s behaviour on the new tyre.
Dovizioso is expecting a punishing race tomorrow as a result of more than just that lack of feeling, too.
MotoGP riders will be racing in some of the hottest conditions ever endured by the grid in Europe as the coronavirus-reshuffled calendar means Jerez has moved from May to July – and so far across the weekend air temperatures have regularly exceeded 40ºC.
Coupled with the fact that the Ducati bike requires more concentration and more physical effort to manhandle into corners, Dovioso knows that the 25 laps tomorrow will be tough on him.
“I think the heat will be a big problem for everyone but the way to manage it is related to the speed you have. The problem is not the temperature, it’s the muscles and you have to manage the energy that you have,” said Dovizioso.
“That’s why I’m not happy with the feeling that I have with the front, and it’ll be very important to try to manage the race.
“Everyone is pushing very hard and everyone is fast, but for sure it won’t be the same in the race.”
The 2020 MotoGP season had initially seemed like Dovizioso’s best chance of finally beating Marc Marquez after three season of finishing runner-up – but the enforced hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic and Dovizioso’s own off-season injuries mean that hope has significantly faded, though Dovizioso remains upbeat.
“We know the rules, we know what we have to do, and it’s the same for everyone,” he said.
“We have to find a way, so I don’t want to complain about something. For sure I’m not happy about the feeling that we have right now, but maybe we’ll find something, change the feeling and it’ll become a positive thing for us.
“We have a lot of experience and we’ve worked in a lot of different areas and on different things in the past three years.
“That’s why I don’t want to complain, because we know we have to adapt to the new things and try to turn them in a positive way for us.”
Ducati team-mate Danilo Petrucci is in even more trouble: struggling not only with the problems of the Ducati and his lingering injuries from Wednesday’s testing crash but also struggling in general thanks to his larger physical size in the hot conditions.
Qualifying 14th, he was nonetheless more optimistic than his team-mate at the end of the day.
“On Friday I put a lot of effort on my shoulder and my neck, and last night I struggled to sleep,” said Petrucci.
“This morning I had to go to the medical centre for painkilling injections. Qualifying wasn’t so bad in the end and my time was good enough to start fifth – but unfortunately I was in Q1 and not Q2.
“It’ll be a tough race but I’m happy with the improvements we made and hopefully I’ll sleep well tonight and not need the very strong painkillers to feel better tomorrow.”
