Jorge Lorenzo looks ahead to 2018 season at Ducati Team launch

The 2018 Ducati Team, which will take part in the MotoGP World Championship with Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo, was presented today in the heart of the Ducati factory at Borgo Panigale, Bologna.

Final preparations have now been made for this challenging season, which gets underway with the first of 19 rounds on the calendar in Qatar on March 18. Andrea and Jorge will be back on their 2018 Desmosedici GP machines, which were unveiled in a brand-new captivating red and grey livery, at the end of the month.

Jorge Lorenzo (#99, Ducati Team rider):
“2017 was quite a difficult year for me, because I didn’t even win one race and at the start of the championship I wasn’t able to fight for the podium, but I was patient and never gave up, and in the last few races we finally scored some quite good results. The work of the team was very important and Ducati helped me a lot to adapt the bike to my riding style, and so I think that in 2018 we’ll be starting with a much more competitive base. Andrea and the Desmosedici GP demonstrated that we have everything in place to try and win the world championship, and I think that I have the strength and the experience necessary to fight together with him to achieve this aim. I believe a lot in our chances and I’m convinced that we are stronger than one year ago. For me to be a Ducatista is something really special: I’m very proud to have accepted this challenge and I have felt part of the family since the very first day, and so I’d like to repay the passion and the support we receive from Ducatisti all over the world with lots of wins and, if possible, with the world title.”

Claudio Domenicali, Ducati Motor Holding CEO:
“2017 finished well both from a business and racing point of view, and we sold almost 56,000 bikes. We are ready for 2018 and we are really confident that it will be another positive year. It is a year in which, for the first time, our fans will have available a bike which is a close relation to a bike we developed in racing, the Panigale V4. It’s a very important year also for the Scrambler, with the arrival of the 1100 adding a completely new dimension to this world, made up of larger dimensions and better comfort, performance and technology, all clearly in perfect Scrambler style. It will also be the year of World Ducati Week at Misano from July 20-22, and we want to organize the best and most complete WDW of all time.
Ducati is a strong and solid company that has become big enough to allow important investments for the future. We are in a fantastic period: the digital revolution and the world of social media are changing all of our lives and Ducati wants to be an agent of this change, all the time preserving its own values.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all those in the company who have enabled us to obtain the results in 2017. Thanks to all of the partners who are by our side for this new MotoGP adventure, and all the best to Ducati Corse for a 2018 with Ducati as protagonist.”

The Ducati Team will leave in a few days’ time for Malaysia where the first session of official pre-season tests will take place at the Sepang circuit from 28 to 30 January.