After speaking highly about Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi, multiple world champion Mick Doohan is not sure if Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso is strong enough to challenge them for the MotoGP title.
Its been 11 years now since Dovizioso made his MotoGP debut with Honda in 2008. The Italian raced for the Japanese outfit until 2011 when he first had the chance to win the championship by finishing third behind Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorezno.
He moved to Yamaha for a year in 2012 and had a good year in fourth and then made the move to Ducati in 2013 with whom he has been racing till now. In his six years with the team, it is only in 2017 and 2018 that he had any chance to win the title after 2011.
Last year he had a bigger chance when he finished second to Marc Marquez – as he almost took the title away from him. This year was more of a Marquez show as the Spaniard managed to seal the championship with three races to spare.
For whatever reasons, Dovizioso hasn’t been consistent enough to get the job done which is what Doohan refers to as well – the Australian has no doubts that the Italian has supreme talent but he is just not sure that he can get the job done.
“He is strong, again you don’t know if the Ducati is as strong as the other bikes week in week out, Dovi was on the Honda and the Ducati for a long time and never really done anything,” said Doohan to the MotoGP website.
“Last year and this year he’s done some great racing but he just doesn’t seem to be able to do enough to clinch a Championship or consistently be better than the other guys. He’s a great guy but I don’t know if he’s strong enough to challenge.
“[For example] Marc can ride whatever bike. Like I was saying before when everything’s good for some of these guys, everything’s closer. As soon as the bikes go away a bit, Marc makes the difference and he can ride it whatever.
“I think that’s the difference with people like Marc that make them stand out, he makes the difference. It was true of other guys too, Pedrosa…when everything’s perfect with Pedrosa you can’t even see him.
“Cadalora too, but then the next race…Dovi has got better but still has a bit of hesitation on that, but again I think he’s got stronger over the last few years but now we don’t know what the position is…is it Ducati?
“For me, to put him on the same playing field as Marquez…he’s not there yet.” Looking at the results in the last 10 years especially for the title wins, it is only Marquez, Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo’s name in the list since Dovizioso has been riding in MotoGP.
[Read: Doohan On Marquez and on Rossi]
