Andrea Dovizioso took the first points of his new MotoGP adventure in Austin with the SRT Petronas Yamaha team. The 13th place obtained, just half a second behind Alex Marquez’s Honda shows how much progress he has made compared to the debut event of the season held at Misano 2 weeks ago.
The 13th place finish tells of a Dovizioso who still has many steps forward to make, but also that the 10 months of inactivity have not affected either his desire to race or his competitiveness. 35 years old and not hearing them, this just seems to be the case.
“The important thing is that the improvement over Misano has been very big,” said Andrea at the end of the Austin Grand Prix of the Americas. “In the end, therefore, it was a good weekend. It was nice to have a very different experience than 2 weeks ago. work to improve more and more “.
However, not everything went in the best way. According to Dovizioso, the final result could have been even better if only there hadn’t been a problem at the start. His 2019 M1 spec – right at the key moment – had a drop in engine revs and this made him lose his momentum at the start. If we then consider that Iwata’s bike does not excel in power, what happened at that juncture of the race takes on even more weight in the economy of the final result.
“The race was quite good, I was consistent from start to finish both in performance and physique. I have against riders that I didn’t even see with binoculars at Misano. I could have finished tenth, or I could have played for that position. … if I had started later. I missed the start, but maybe we had a problem at the start. We have to investigate. “
“I was lucky that the bike didn’t go out, it just went down the revs. The M1 is already a bike with which it is difficult to overtake, if you then lose positions at the start it is more difficult. It was a weekend anyway. very positive. Logically it is not enough, because Fabio shows that we can go faster and we must work to go in that direction. And that’s what we are trying to do “.
Trouble in Moto3, it’s a question of respect
Andrea then spoke about what happened yesterday in the Moto3 race, with the terrible accident triggered by Deniz Oncu in which only luck – or whoever for it – prevented the riders involved (including Pedro Acosta and Andrea Migno) from having irreparable physical consequences.
“I think the problem was not restarting and doing a 5-lap race. The problem is that the guys have to understand how to race and have respect for others. It’s not like you become world champion by aggressive maneuvers. Our sport is dangerous. By doing aggressive maneuvers you may have advantages at a certain moment, but then it backfires the next time. Those who try to do that kind of maneuver have not understood this sport. “
“There are times where you can be aggressive, but there is a limit. You have to be more relaxed. You can’t go 100% without thinking rationally, that’s not good. You have to find ways to sanction aggressive pilots to sensitize them. These things don’t They have to happen. They can happen, but not involuntarily. The fights are beautiful, they have to be there, but you must always think that you can’t risk your life. This is not the approach to competitions. “
According to the rider from Forlì, it is never too late to educate the kids who land in the World Championship. The severity of penalties can be an excellent deterrent, because it can curb the instincts of boys who seem to have no limits in the perception of danger.
“It is not too late to educate the kids in the World Championship. When they arrive you can still do a lot. If you penalize them heavily then they learn. They may disagree the first time, but then the second time they think about doing certain things. the thought is that they will then come to understand that they were wrong. If they don’t get there on their own, someone will let you know. Then afterwards special things come in. Sanctioning pilots correctly is complicated, because everyone has their own points of view on sanctions. That is difficult terrain “, concluded Dovizioso.