RNF rider Andrea Dovizioso is 18th in the World Championship after two races: The MotoGP veteran is convinced that the Yamaha M1 has more potential
Two meagre points are on MotoGP veteran Andrea Dovizioso’s tally after the first two races of the 2022 season. Razlan Razali’s RNF team expects Dovizioso to be a World Championship contender. The Italian is far from this expectation at the moment. But why is “Dovi” having such a hard time?
Yamaha have generally not had a good start to the 2022 MotoGP season, with World Champion Fabio Quartararo’s second place in the chaotic rain race in Indonesia somewhat masking the poor performance of the opening race in Qatar. But it is obvious that Yamaha is not as strong as last year.
“There are reasons for the result in Qatar. The situation of the two riders from the factory team is different from mine,” Dovizioso analyses. “They already know the bike. I, on the other hand, have my own ideas. But it is still too early to talk about the details. “
Although Dovizioso has already completed the final races of the 2021 season for the team then still operating under the Petronas-Yamaha name, he does not yet harmonise perfectly with the Yamaha M1. The multiple MotoGP vice world champion needs more time to adapt.
“I can’t use the potential of the bike yet. So I can’t speak for them (the factory riders). But they didn’t manage to be competitive in Qatar for some reason. And this is a track where they could win the year before,” Dovizioso recalls of the two Yamaha victories at the start of the 2021 season, when Maverick Vinales and later Fabio Quartararo won the races.
