Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso believes that new MotoGP team-mate Jorge Lorenzo has shown the reality of the Desmosedici’s competitiveness in 2017 and the factory can now move in a different development direction if they want to challenge for the title in 2018.

The Italian revealed that the GP17 is pretty much the same as the GP16 - but without wings and getting the bike to turn and carry corner speed, which is what Lorenzo used as the main part of arsenal, is where the focus should be.

“We are not as competitive as we expected. We changed a few things on the bike but it is very similar to last year - and without winglets so is very important to have the right feedback, to understand and to confirm the negative points of the bike and where we can improve to fight for the championship,” said Dovizioso.

“During the season, you can’t change everything on the bike. For sure, we can be more competitive in some races but if our goal is to win the championship, we don’t have the speed. We already have to think about next year if our goal is that because we have to analyse everything and decide in which area we need to work.

“We did a good job but we didn’t fix our limit of last year. That is why I am not surprised we are in the situation we are in now. Turning is one of the points and with the arrival of Jorge, this come out a little bit stronger.

He is one of the best riders in the world and it has showed some limit of the bike - some people think maybe some riders can make better with this bike but I don’t think it is like this in this moment. Jorge has shown the reality and this means we can put more effort in a different place than we have been working for the last few years.”