Dovi won't be distracted by DTM

Andrea Dovizioso insists his upcoming DTM debut will not be a distraction from MotoGP.

The double title runner-up will make a one-off outing at Misano next month, testing the Audi touring car at the same circuit prior to arriving at this weekend's Italian MotoGP.

The Ducati rider is currently once again second in the MotoGP world championship, just eight points behind Honda's Marc Marquez.

"No, not really," he said of the risk of the car outing being a distraction during the MotoGP season. "When I'm at home I don't really live in the MotoGP world or follow a lot of things. Normally I follow motocross and this time I will be focused on the cars.

"I mean, for sure I want to go there and make the maximum, but it's an experience. I don't have the pressure to do a good result. The pressure is only to be acceptable! It’s a different story.

"I have this opportunity to do that with Audi. It’s something special. I don't think [it's a distraction from MotoGP]."

Unfortunately for Dovizioso, there is also little he can learn from DTM and apply in MotoGP.

"It is impossible to bring something from the cars [to MotoGP] because it is a completely different world," he said. "But, for me, it's important at my age to keep an open mind and try to learn something completely different, even if no correlation exists to the bike.

"The test was a real test, with a lot of engineers and I could learn a lot of things in a short time.

"It was quite strange because the first 6 laps I was so scared to make the fast [curvone] corner flatout, even though it's not as fast as the bike. But it was just about confidence because with more speed the downforce is higher and you have more stability.

"After two hours it was so easy to do. I don't have any important experience with cars, so it's normal that can happen… It will be for sure very hard, but also a really nice experience next weekend."

Returning to MotoGP, Dovizioso addressed the task he and Ducati face in trying to topple Marquez and Honda from the head of the world championship:

"What do we need? It's always a package, bike and rider, but I think it's impossible to analyse and divide how strong is the bike and how strong is the rider, if you race with a different bike," he said.

"If Marc had my bike, I could understand exactly from the data the positive and negative points about him or the bike."

However, Dovizioso feels his success in recent years has been partly down to not thinking too deeply about what the opposition is doing.

"I'm focused on myself and it's the reason why in the last few years I was able to fight for the championship, win races."

Nonetheless, "we would like to improve the turning, everybody knows. It's not something new, because in some other areas we are very competitive compared to the past."

Dovizioso claimed an emotional home win for Ducati at Mugello in 2017 and finished runner-up to team-mate Jorge Lorenzo last season.