The 22-year old was confirmed as works driver for Honda in 2009, replacing former world champ Nicky Hayden – whom he stood up to last weekend in the battle for 3rd place. Despite the quick chance from a satellite team to an outfit that is constantly challenging world title, Dovi believes he will be up to the task and is looking forward to improving his performance at MotoGP.
“I'm really happy about this season - we gained a lot of experience, and I'm think I'm ready to go to the factory team. I want to work with the team and the bike, because when you're with a satellite team you cannot improve the bike. It will be very difficult for sure because it's the first year when I can work on the bike,” said the Italian.
His first outing with the new team will happen as early as next week, during the post-season testing at Valencia. Not only Dovi will have to get comfortable with his new bike, but he will also ride on new tires, as Honda's works team will stick to Bridgestone rubber for next season also. Looking forward to the testing days, the Italian admitted it will be a new experience for him changing so many things (team, bike, tires) in so little time.
“On Monday we will try the new bike and the new tires, so it will be quite difficult because also the team will be new for me. To try a different bike is so interesting for me, but to try it with the different tires will make it so difficult to understand exactly the differences of the bike,” added Dovizioso.
With one race to go in the season – season's finale at Valencia – the JiR Scot rider sits on a comfortable 5th place in the overall classification, 16 points ahead of nearest rival Nicky Hayden. As he's unlikely to lose his championship position this weekend, he also has little chance of improving it, while resting 21 points behind 4th place Jorge Lorenzo.
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