MotoGP: Ducati mandates passing rules for Iannone and Dovizioso

After four races, the first factory Ducati is Andrea Iannone in 10th spot in the MotoGP championship standings. Or rather, it should be said that Iannone is “only in 10th place.” Yes, there are 14 more races to go in the championship, so there are plenty of opportunities to catch up to the leaders, but this doesn’t take care of the feeling of bitter disappointment felt in the Borgo Panigale firm’s racing department. Especially because the circumstances that have led to this situation has been, let’s say…“non-technical.”

After the enormous R&D effort made by Ducati during the winter and the preseason, expectations of a strong start to the 2016 season were high…and for good reason. In the first 2016 qualifying session at Losail, Andrea Iannone put his Desmosedici in 4th position, just 0.150 seconds off Jorge Lorenzo's pole time. The work done by Dall'Igna and his technicians had apparently paid off.

In the Qatar race, it was not Iannone but Dovizioso who gave the Italian brand the satisfaction they had expected. In a very strategic race, the more veteran of the two Andreas made his way from sixth position on the grid to the second step of the podium, finishing in front of names like Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi or Dani Pedrosa. In the very first laps of the race there were some scary moments when both Iannone and Dovizioso staged a fratricidal duel, which ended with Iannone crashing on lap four. And yet the euphoria of Dovizioso's good result somehow diluted the fact that both Desmosedicis could have possibly finished on the podium.

But in racing, existing problems don't stay hidden long. In the following GP at Termas del Rio Hondo in Argentina, Ducati's worst nightmare came true when Iannone crashed and took out Dovizioso while trying a very risky pass in the next-to-last corner of the race while the pair were fighting over second place. A possible great result turned into a disaster. The next two GPs were a repetition of high and lows, which led to Ducati management's frustration at the situation finally reaching a boiling point.

The annoyance with what happened in Argentina led the management at Reparto Corse to establish a “behavior protocol” in case both riders meet again on the track during a race…which will certainly occur at some point in time. “It’s not in the contract”, complained one of rider’s managers. The “protocol” was communicated to the riders verbally in the facilities of the Racing Department at Borgo Panigale.

We don't know the details of these "non-written rules", but we do know that one refers to how each rider is to act in case the two get into the same situations as Qatar and Argentina. The new protocol establishes that, in case of being passed by his teammate, the overtaken rider must wait at least until the following lap to try to re-pass his teammate. Yes, it obviously sounds almost ridiculous, and immediately brings up the question what they should do if the first pass happens on the final lap, like in Argentina, or if there are other riders in the mix.

Our contact smiled and shrugged when we asked what is supposed to happen in circumstances like this. Ducati announced that the Barcelona GP will be the time when it is announced which of the Andreas—Iannone or Dovizioso—will share the team with Lorenzo in 2017. So until then the "peace" between both is guaranteed…well, supposed to be guaranteed. And all this leads up to the Italian GP at Mugello, the most important and crucial race for Ducati…