MotoGP | Paolo Ciabatti: "There is a desire to renew with Dovi, but we need to see if the conditions are there"

MotoGP Paolo Ciabatti renews Dovizioso – A few weeks ago the sporting director of Ducati Corse, Paolo ciabatti, admitted that the renewal of Andrea Doviziso's contract would be very complicated (here the details), today on the radio show 'Tutti Convocati' the DS returned to the topic.

Yesterday the new Ducati Desmosedici GP was presented which will take part in the 2018 MotoGP world championship and obviously there was talk of renewing the contracts for the riders, both of which are expiring. On the one hand Jorge Lorenzo, who expects top rider treatment, on the other Andrea Dovizioso, who came close to the title in 2017 and therefore has expectations in line with his results. However, as already stated, the budget for the pilots is not unlimited and, most likely, the increase in compensation for one will correspond to a decrease for the other.

These words Paolo ciabatti: “As we said, our goal is to confirm Andrea and try to confirm Jorge too. We need to see if the conditions are there, it's too early to talk about it, I must say that there is the will, I believe on both sides, to find an agreement. Andrea expects a salary in line with that of other top riders given what he demonstrated in 2017. I believe that with good will on the part of both, a solution can be found, I hope in the next few months. 2018, enthusiasts know, is a year in which the contracts of all the official riders of all the manufacturers and all the teams expire, so Ducati is in the same situation as Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, KTM and Aprilia ”.

The sporting director then spoke about the next season:“2018 is a year in which we do not present ourselves as favourites, because I believe that the favorite must necessarily be Marc Marquez, he has won 4 of the last 5 MotoGP world championships. We start with the idea of ​​being protagonists in all the races with both drivers and of being protagonists of the world championship, which means trying to win it. Then in my opinion we need to be aware of our own qualities, of the qualities of our bike, which we have improved in the areas where it still had some small problems, obviously hoping that our opponents have not improved their bikes dramatically. But we start with the desire to do well, aware that we have two exceptional riders, and a bike that we think can be defined as one of the best bikes in MotoGP. Then sport is like this, it also takes a bit of luck but we think we have the right ingredients to compete in this world championship."

Ciabatti recognizes the merits of Andrea Dovizioso after the extraordinary season just concluded: “Andrea truly had a fantastic 2017 season, starting with that very important victory at Mugello. It was the first time that an Italian rider on an Italian motorcycle had won Mugello. If we look at history, an Italian rider on an Italian motorbike hadn't won in Italy since 1974, so it means we've made a little piece of history. When you win the same number of races, you are the world champion who wins and you play for the world title in the last race, clearly the following season everyone expects you to repeat yourself and try to do something better and so here we are".