DOVIZIOSO TO DEPART DUCATI

Andrea Dovizioso to depart Ducati – Photo: LAT

Andrea Dovizioso will leave the Ducati Corse squad at the end of 2020 his manager Simone Battistella confirmed.

By DAN McCARTHY

Since joining the Italian manufacturer in 2013, Dovizioso has finished as the bridesmaid to Marc Marquez in the last three seasons.

However, the once harmonious relationship has come to a messy and bitter end with Battistella announcing to Sky Italia that Dovizioso will leave the Italian squad at the end of the season.

“We communicated today to Ducati that Andrea does not intend to continue for the next few years,” Battistella told Sky Italia.

“He now wants to focus on this championship, on these races, and let’s say we don’t feel the conditions are right to continue in the future.”

The Ducati sporting director Paolo Ciabatti verified that ‘Dovi’ will depart the team releasing a statement saying.

“We met Simone this morning (Saturday) here at Red Bull Ring and realised that unfortunately there are not the conditions to continue our relationship with Dovi beyond the end of the current contract,” it read.

“Ducati and Andrea will now fully concentrate on the remainder of the 2020 season, starting from tomorrow’s Austrian GP, with the common goal to add more wins to the 13 wins already achieved together and fight for the title until the end of the championship.”

It was reported that money was the major sticking point in the contract renewal, but Battistella stated that no deal was ever handed to Dovizioso and added that no negotiations have begun with other teams.

“In practice we have never talked about the economic part so far. There have been no proposals or negotiations [for 2021],” he said.

“Andrea intends to continue running, of course, if he finds a suitable programme and proposal to do so.

“There are no alternatives at the moment, so there are no negotiations with other teams.”

As both Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci will leave Ducati at the end of 2020 it will be an all new line-up in the factory squad next year.

Several weeks ago it was announced that Australian Jack Miller will step up to the factory team in 2021, it is unknown who he will share the garage with.

At this stage, Miller’s current teammate at Pramac Ducati Francesco Bagnaia seems the likely option. However, Cal Crutchlow and Jorge Lorenzo have previously put their names forward.

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