Not having a bike to race on should be right at the top of the list of hinderances preventing a rider from winning the MotoGP championship – along with having no arms or being related to Bradley Smith. But no bike might not stop one rider winning the championship – Andrea Dovizioso.
Rewind six months [feel free to add your own sound effect of a record needle being pulled off the vinyl] and Dovi was in a bad place. And we don’t mean Hull. The Italian rider hated Ducati’ bigwig manager Gigi Dall’Igna who he accused of not only having a stupid name but being in love with Jorge Lorenzo. In 2017 the love affair pushed poor Andrea to the side-lines reducing him from being their number one rider to ‘that guy with the bad skin’. Predictably Lorenzo fell out with Ducati leaving Dall’Igna angry and in no mood to come back to Dovizioso.
Last year the feeling of loathing was so powerful that it’s suggested Dovi refused to try hard as to punish Ducati. Meanwhile Ducati did all they could to stop Andrea winning. So it was clear the pairing would split. But when they did the Italian bridesmaid found he had nowhere left to go. Even his curvy team-mate Danilo Petrucci had landed a new factory ride.
It wasn’t looking good. But suddenly there was light at the end of the tunnel for Dovizioso and it was shining brightly through one of Marc Marquez’s xrays…
Marc Marquez crashed out in the opening race injuring his shoulder. He then injured it more when the surgeon (who probably had a few too many sherbets the night before) tried to fix and bodged it. He then injured it even more trying to flush an annoyingly persistent brown-trout down the toilet. Before we knew it his season was over – but back for 2021 right?
Maybe not. Marc undergone more surgery to try to fix the failed surgery that failed to fix the first surgery. Suddenly 2021 is looking doubtful.
So could this be Dovi’s time? Will he be offered the factory Honda ride? And can he win the championship?
Yes he can
Who won the 2020 MotoGP championship? A tough question. Wikipedia says it was Joan Mir but does anyone even remember him racing? Probably not. As exciting as the season was it was only exciting because no single rider was consistently very good. No rider stood out and dominated because the rider that usually stands out and dominates was dominating A&E. Would Mir have won if Marc Marquez was uninjured? Of course not. Would we have had that many different winners? Of course not.
2020 really should have been Dovi’s year. For several seasons he has always been the next best rider after Marc. But his loathing of men with grey hair wearing red meant he hated his team and Christmas to the point he forfeited the title and didn’t give any yuletide gifts.
So if Andrea gets a clean start and a full season of racing the HRC machine surely he can string together some of his previous results…minus Marc Marquez in front of him. Furthermore he’ll be fuelled to brim with wanting to administrate lashing of revenge on his former employers…a classic mix.
No he can’t
For a start Dovi hasn’t actually a ride.
Then there’s the annoying fact that Marc Marquez’s crew chief Santi Hernandez reckons that the cuckoo-clock fettling Stefan Bradl would be a better choice. Of course that’s not true unless he was talking about schnitzel flipping…which we’re almost certain he wasn’t.
Even if he does get the HRC ride would Marc be out for the entire season? Honda have pinned all their hopes and dreams on Marc especially as his younger brother Ralf seems somewhat less special so they’ll not want to stop him returning to the team regardless of Dovi’s results.
Finally there’s the actual bike itself. It crushed Jorge Lorenzo’s spirit leaving him the laughing stock of the paddock forcing him to take up singing instead. Meanwhile Marc’s younger brother Ralf Schumarquez struggled to adapt to the bike unique characteristics…which is PR talk for ‘an unrideable heap’. It only took half a season for Ralf to be demoted to the LCR b-team once it became apparent he wasn’t going to win on it. Would it take too long to learn?
But Dovi has ridden the Ducati to success. And that bike has crushed many a career. In fact it’s said that after just one season riding the Ducati poor Marco Melandri developed a non-stop dribble out of the left side of his mouth that now requires full time attention. If Andrea could tame the Ducati surely the Honda is possible?
Conclusion
So can Dovi win the championship despite not having a bike? How the hell should we know? Stranger things have happened – like that time Colin Edwards nearly won a race. So if you’re down on your luck and money why take this opportunity to put a mortgage-crippling bet on him?*
*Remember folks to gamble responsibly keeping in mind that the best way out of a gambling debt is to gamble more until you beat the system.