Andrea Dovizioso and Ducati: will they be together after 2018? Photo credit: Ducati
It seems Ducati Corse is in a bit of a problem right now, and all because its main rider in MotoGP, Andrea Dovizioso, doesn’t seem to be tempted to accept any offer that the Italian team throws at him.
Ducati management doesn’t want Dovizioso to run away to another rival team, and before anyone else tried to negotiate a contract deal with the Italian rider, Ducati gave him an offer for renewal: 6 million euros a year (around RM28.581.191,85 at current exchange rate).
A pretty good value… or so Ducati thought!
Andrea Dovizioso is well aware of his value right now, after all, he’s winning races on a Ducati bike in MotoGP, something no one else is able to do, and the last rider winning so many races on the Italian prototype was Casey Stoner. “DesmoDovi” won the first race of the season in Qatar fending off the champion Marc Marquez, and in the last 9 races Dovizioso won 5 of them.
Andrea Dovizioso at the MotoGP season opener at Qatar. Photo credit: Ducati
The Ducati offer of 6 million euros a year would seem perfect for the Italian. He’s getting from the current contract something around 2 million euros until the end of 2018, but the fact is that what Ducati is offering is half of what they’re paying to Jorge Lorenzo, and the Spanish rider hasn’t won a single race for Ducati since joining the team coming from Yamaha.
Andrea Dovizioso feels that Ducati isn’t being fair to him and didn’t accept the offer of 6 million euros, so his manager is already in talks with other teams.
Simone Battistella, Dovizioso’s manager, has been talking with Suzuki since the race in Qatar a few weeks ago, and he already knows that the Japanese team doesn’t want to keep Andrea Iannone in the team and they see Andrea Dovizioso as the man to take the Suzuki prototype to victories in MotoGP.
But Honda is also making a move on Dovizioso, with Carlo Fiorani, communication manager for Repsol Honda team, saying that “if Dani Pedrosa doesn’t continue to race in the next years, I would like to have Andrea Dovizioso with us, even though it’s a bit complicated, because Ducati will do everything in their power to keep him”.
Will Ducati make another offer to renew with Andrea Dovizioso? Or is the Italian rider really considering a move to Suzuki or Honda?