Andrea announces his break from MotoGP 2023

The Italian rider, Andrea Dovizioso, has announced that he would leave MotoGP at the end of the current season and not return for the 2023 campaign since he can no longer compete. Dovizioso, a three-time MotoGP championship runner-up with Ducati who started his career in 2001, has only 10 points this season and is currently 22nd in the standings after not finishing in the top 10 in any races.

Dovizioso left Ducati after the 2020 season and went without a team in 2021 until he was signed by Petronas Yamaha, which is now the independent Yamaha RNF squad, in the second half of the year.

Andrea said, “There is no reason, especially after 20 years. I never tried to have a place for next year. “I’m completely relaxed about that. I already did half a year out of racing last year. I already tested (retirement), so I’m OK about that. I didn’t want to finish the season like this.”

He added, “But if the other riders are complaining, like in the last (few) years, it means there aren’t more ways to be competitive like in the past. “MotoGP has changed a lot. In the past, 10 years ago, the same riders were on top — doesn’t matter which bike… Now it’s different, the mechanical parts are a bit more important.”

Dovizioso said to Reuters earlier this year that he had been having trouble finishing in the points because he was finding it difficult to adjust to the Yamaha bike, which was quite different from the Ducati bike he had raced on for eight years. The 36-year-old continued by saying that only the current champion Fabio Quartararo was at ease riding the Yamaha this year, and the others would struggle if they did not ride like him.

This season, Quartararo is at first place in the standings, although his factory Yamaha teammate Franco Morbidelli is the next-best Yamaha rider, currently in 19th. To this Andrea praised Quartararo’s speed and said that if he is winning that means that there is still scope for speed in MotoGP.