Andrea Dovizioso to Continue With Ducati till 2018

Having started his relationship with Ducati in 2013, Andrea Dovizioso will now spend the 2017 and 2018 seasons of MotoGP in the Ducati Team riding the Desmosedici.

The MotoGP rider from Forlimpopoli, Italy, Andrea Dovizioso, has decided to continue with the Ducati team till 2018. The rider will spend the next two seasons as teammate to Jorge Lorenzo in the Ducati Team riding the Desmosedici. Another rider who made his MotoGP debut with Ducati, Andrea Iannone, is leaving the team at the end of this season.

Last year, the younger rider, Andrea Iannone, finished fifth and was the top Ducati rider in the standings. So initially, he seemed most likely to stay. However, the consistent performance and lesser mistakes of Dovizioso kept him among the top ten riders since 2008 and that could be the reason for Ducati picking him over Iannone.

If we talk about the running season, both the riders have a large distance from the top scores following some crashes. Now, the difference is that Iannone has fallen due to his own mistakes, most notably wiping himself and Dovizioso from a double podium at the final turns in Argentina. Whereas, Dovi's bad luck continued when he was torpedoed by Dani Pedrosa's bike in Austin, then suffered a technical failure at Jerez before an accident at Le Mans.

Now, some reports claim that Iannone could ride the GSX-RR for Suzuki in the next season as a replacement for Maverick Vinales who is set to join Valentino Rossi at Yamaha as a replacement for Lorenzo.

Commenting on the renewal of his agreement with Ducati for the next two years, Andrea Dovizioso said, “I’m very pleased to have reached this agreement with Ducati and to be able to continue the adventure we began in 2013. Over the years we worked hard and have managed to bring the Desmosedici to a great level of competitiveness and therefore I am convinced that soon we will get all the rewards we deserve.”

Luigi Dall’Igna, general manager, Ducati Corse, said, “It is never easy to make a decision like this, especially when you have two great riders like the Andreas. We are very pleased that Dovizioso has agreed to stay with us for the next two years and together with him we can continue the successful work we started four years ago to achieve the ambitious goals we set. Sorry to Andrea Iannone, who at the end of the season will no longer be with us. Andrea has done important work over the years and has contributed significantly to the development of the Ducati Desmosedici GP. For this we wish to thank him and we will do our utmost with him in the next races to get the best results possible.”