Honda-bound Jorge Lorenzo said it was the Spaniard’s management which made the initial approach to the Japanese manufacturer for a switch to Honda from Ducati after the Le Mans MotoGP race for the 2019 season.
The four-time champion has had a difficult switch to Ducati from Yamaha in 2017 where he was only seventh with 137 points. Lorenzo had to wait one full season and five races in 2018 to attain his first-ever victory abode Ducati in the Italian Grand Prix.
However, it was too late by then as Lorenzo had already decided to move in the race prior to Mugello when he began talking with Honda to replace Dani Pedrosa to partner with Marc Marquez. “My goal, my first priority was to stay in Ducati to finish what I started,” he said.
“Till Le Mans I realized that maybe I’ll stay with Ducati but after Le Mans it was clear I was going to leave Ducati and they wanted to swap riders. So, my manager and I started to think about projects. Till Le Mans, I wanted to win races and championships with Ducati, if possible.
“But next year as you know I’ll be competing with another manufacturer. I [had] approached Honda.” The Spaniard was rumoured to return to Yamaha in a satellite outfit but ride the same factory bike as Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales would.
But Honda took the option to sign Lorenzo which Marquez agreed to as well, since he wanted to have a fast teammate. Ducati, meanwhile, gave one-year contract to Danilo Petrucci who has been waiting in the wings for several years.
It took some time for Lorenzo to adapt to Ducati which is termed as a difficult bike. But it is said the Honda is much more harder to ride. Lorenzo understands the challenge but he says he is ready for it, having won on several bikes in his career so far.
“Now, everybody is looking at me…I entered the championship when I was 16-years, I know how fast I can be on different bikes,” he said. “I won with Derbi, I rode for Honda, Aprilia, Yamaha, Ducati – [I won with Aprilia, Yamaha and now Ducati].
“Sooner or later I know I have the talent to go faster with a motorcycle. I’ve worked for a lot of hours, millions of hours, and I have this capacity. I know what I want to do with the bike and for sure it will be a challenge, but that’s the future.”
Looking at 2018, Lorenzo is not counting himself out of a title as he sits 54 points behind Marquez in the riders’ standings. He knows it is a longshot but he is taking it one race at a time. “We are in a sweet moment with Ducati, it’s a good package and we try and improve it every month,” he said.
“It’s good for all [Ducati] riders, on our side we got some pieces that helped me keep a constant pace and we arrive at a good track after a good test a month ago here. We see amazing things in MotoGP.
“We just won one race, we don’t know what we can achieve in the future. We’re here, at a track that I like, where I’ve won with Yamaha in the past. I’m in a good way. Anything can happen but we’re all so close,” he added.