Andrea Divizioso is an Italian racer who has his eye set on superstardom on the grand stage of MotoGP. Dovizioso has shot up through the 125 and 250 GP ranks who contested his rookie.
Bike No.: 4- Team: Repsol Honda Team
- Date of birth: March 23, 1986
- Place of birth: Forlimpopoli, Italy
- Nationality: Italian
- Residence: London, UK
- Hobbies: SuperMotard, Motocross, Football, Snowboard
- Favourite Riders: Kevin Schwanz, Valentino Rossi
- Favourite Bike: "My Honda RC212V"
- Music: various
- Favourite car: R8 Audi, Porche 911
- Grand prix debut: 2001 125cc Italian Grand Prix, Mugello Aprilia
- First Grand Prix win: 2004 125cc South Africa Grand Prix Honda
- Total Grand Prix wins: 10 (5 in 125cc and 4 in 250cc)
- Total podiums: 41 (15 in 125cc and 26 in 250cc)
- World Championship: 2004, 125cc
Career
It was a wager of a different kind that began Dovi’s motorcycling life. As a four-year-old, he bet his father that if he could ride his bicycle without training wheels, he would win a motorcycle. The youngster won the bet and his father, a motocross racer in his own right, was more than happy to pay up. .
Dovizioso’s early memories are of watching his father race motocross and it wasn’t long before the youngster took to the track with a passion. By the time he was seven he was racing both on and off-road near his home in Forlimpopoli, Italy, and wearing the number 34 in honor of his idol Kevin Schwantz. In 1994, his first year in the Italian Minimoto Championship he finished fifth, and would later twice win the championship. He was also an avid and skilled football player, but in 2000 he chose to devote his energy to racing.
In 2000 he raced in the Aprilia 125 Challenge before moving on to a proper race bike to contest the 2001 European 125cc Championship. In his first try, Dovi won the European title and was promoted to ride a Team Scot Honda RS125R in the 2002 125cc World Championship. Just two years later he took eight poles and five races on his way to the 2004 125cc title.
The move to 250’s followed, still with Team Scot Honda, and he scored five podiums in his rookie year, finishing third overall. The next year he won twice, to finish second, a performance he repeated in 2007.
Dovizioso’s dream came true when he was elevated to the MotoGP category in 2008 with Team Scot Honda. In his class debut under the lights in Qatar, Dovizioso finished just off the podium while beating the eventual world champion Valentino Rossi and finishing just behind Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa. .
The result was tough to replicate, but Dovizioso was a revelation in 2008, finishing inside the top five on nine occasions, finishing just 16 points behind fellow rookie Jorge Lorenzo on the factory Yamaha and ahead of works Honda rider Nicky Hayden. .
Peaking with a maiden podium finish in the Malaysian Grand Prix, Dovizioso was hot property by the end of the season and was duly promoted to the factory Repsol Honda team for 2009.
However, despite the high-profile move, Dovizioso endured a season of mixed fortunes, proving a frequent top five finisher, but struggling to crack the ‘aliens’ ahead of him. Indeed, by the season’s end, Dovizioso had managed just one further podium and finished sixth overall. .
On the plus side, this solitary podium was in fact Dovizioso’s maiden MotoGP win, the Italian staying upright as others fell around him at the slippery Donington Park. .
Staying with Repsol alongside Dani Pedrosa for 2010, though Dovizioso couldn’t replicate his race-winning turn in his second season aboard the Honda, it was a far more consistent season for the Italian as he notched up four podiums in the opening five races to even out-score his team-mate. However, a fairly average mid-season saw Dovizioso slip out of contention, while late charges by the returning Rossi and Stoner saw him end the year fifth overall, 39 points behind runner-up Pedrosa. .
With no win to his name, it was off-track where Dovizioso caused a greater stir as he fought for his place in the Repsol team. Under threat from the impending arrival of Casey Stoner, Honda favoured placing Dovizioso in one of its satellite teams for 2011. However, though he was promised factory assistance, Dovizioso reminded Honda of its contractual obligations and, after a few crossed words in the media, it was announced that he would form part of a three-man Repsol Honda line-up alongside Stoner and Pedrosa. .
With the RC212V proving the bike to beat in 2011, Dovizioso was consistent and quick, but entirely overshadowed by eventual title-winner Stoner. Failing to add to his victory tally once again, Dovizioso nonetheless did enough to secure third in the overall standings, ahead of Pedrosa, but with the Spaniard missing rounds through injury, it was little surprise when Honda confirmed there was no room for Dovizioso in its slimmed two-man 2012 line-up. .
Despite Honda’s attempts to retain Dovizioso, he announced he will defect to Yamaha for 2012, joining its satellite Tech 3 operation. One step back with the intention of taking two steps forward in the future, Dovizioso went into the season with Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies as his performance barometer, as well as a quick team-mate in Cal Crutchlow to contend with.
Indeed, the tussle for inter-team honours between Dovizioso and Crutchlow would prove one of the stories of the season, but the Italian would prove the more consistent of the two, ascending to the podium for the first time at Catalunya, a feat he would match on five further occasions.
Regularly the quickest of the satellite riders, Dovizioso would also prove a thorn in the side of the factory riders, not least Spies, whose troubled year would see him wholly overshadowed by his satellite counterpart.
Even so, despite giving Tech 3 its best-ever season at MotoGP level as he cruised to fourth in the overall standings, the Italian would find himself overlooked once again when Yamaha decided to welcome Valentino Rossi back into the fold to replace the out-of-favour Spies for 2013.
Aggrieved that his strong performance hadn’t been enough to earn him the ride that he – and many others - felt he deserved, Dovizioso refused to re-sign for another season, instead choosing to assume Rossi’s available berth in the factory Ducati team. Bidding to extract the speed his more legendary countryman couldn’t find in two years of competition at Ducati, Dovizioso goes into 2013 on a quest to show Honda and Yamaha what it is missing.
His first MotoGP podium was a third place finish at the second to last round of the '08 season in Malaysia.
Career Highlights:- 2007: 2nd World Championship 250cc with Kopron Team Scot
- 2006: 2nd World Championship 250 cc with Humangest Racing Team
- 2005: 3rd World Championship 250 cc with Team Scot
- 2004: 1st World Championship 125 cc with Team Scot
- 2003: 5th World Championship 125 cc
- 2002: 16th World Championship 125 cc
- 2001: 4th 125 GP Italian Championship, 1st 125 GP European Championship - 3 Victories (2 Hungary, 1 Czech Republic)
- 2000: 2nd Mini-bike Italian Championship, 1st Aprilia Challenge 125cc Italian Championship
- 1999: 2nd Mini-bike Italian Championship
- 1998: 1st Mini-bike Italian Championship, 1st Beginner Football Championship
- 1997: 1st Mini-bike Italian Championship
- 1996: 2nd Mini-bike Italian Championship, 3rd Minicross Italian Championship
- 1995: 3rd Mini-bike Italian Championship
- 1994: 5th Mini-bike Italian Championship
