2020 ended on a happy note for Ducati, with a constructor title that Borgo Panigale had been missing since 2007. However, this was not enough to make their year completely positive as they missed the most important goal: the drivers’ championship.
Without Marquez, it seemed like a goal within reach of Dovizioso and Ducati, but it wasn’t.
“I think fourth place is not enough because the riders, bikes and the team could have fought for the championship as they have done for the past three years“, Commented team manager Davide Tardozzi in an interview with motogp.com. “We didn’t and that should make us think a lot about the future. We had a lot of problems. The main reason was that we couldn’t adapt our bike to the new Michelin rear tires. Our drivers suffered a lot.”
Tires were the (negative) leitmotif throughout the season, at least for the works team.
“Everyone expected Dovizioso to fight for the title, but he couldn’t find the right compromise between his driving style and the Michelin tire. He only mastered this problem in a few races,“, Admitted Tardozzi.
What is done is done and now they must think of the future, represented by Miller and Bagnaia.
“We have to use our strength again, which is acceleration. Then we have to finally solve the problem of the last few years, which is turning ”, the team manager concludes.