Dovizioso expects Ducati to be more competitive than 2017

Andrea Dovizioso says he predicts his entire Ducati package to be more competitive than last season and believes it is more realistic to target the MotoGP world title this year compared to 2017.

Dovizioso became the surprise package of the last MotoGP campaign by being the sole title fighter against Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez at the final round in Valencia before crashing out to hand the title to the Spaniard.

Dovizioso expects Ducati to be more competitive than 2017

Andrea Dovizioso says he predicts his entire Ducati package to be more competitive than last season and believes it is more realistic to target the MotoGP world title this year compared to 2017.

Dovizioso became the surprise package of the last MotoGP campaign by being the sole title fighter against Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez at the final round in Valencia before crashing out to hand the title to the Spaniard.

After enjoying a “wonderful” off-season with three encouraging winter tests to build on his momentum from 2017, Dovizioso says both he and the Ducati GP18 will be a more competitive combination and has already pinpointed the opening rounds as vital to his MotoGP title challenge for this year.

“I finished the season in a good way the winter was wonderful,” Dovizioso said at the pre-event Qatar MotoGP press conference. “It was a really nice winter and I am really happy about last year as we had an incredible year and the positive thing how I expect to be even more competitive this year.

“We worked very well during the winter tests and Ducati worked very well during the winter so we had a lot of new material to test and I think we tried everything in a right way in the three tests. When we race we can show the reality so we have to wait until the race here and especially the next few rounds will be very important for us to understand our level.”

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Dovizioso has finished runner-up at the Qatar MotoGP round for the past three consecutive seasons, missing out to a trio of Yamaha riders of Valentino Rossi (2015), Jorge Lorenzo (2016) and Maverick Vinales (2017), but with the Italian looking to correct his record at the Losail International Circuit he feels his title credentials are stronger than ever.

“In the past when you race for a factory team the goal is that [the world title] but you have to be realistic and in the past it wasn’t really like this,” he said. “We had a chance but we had some bad points and couldn’t really fight over the full 18 rounds.

“But this year I think we are in a better situation about everything. From my side and from the bike side. The approach is like this and it is much better than last year.”

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