Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso isn’t overly concerned at losing the MotoGP soft tyre option later in the year as it will mean he and the team have found the speed they need to regularly challenge for podium spots.

Under the current factory concessions, Ducati have the soft tyre option, four extra litres of fuel and 12 engines per season to use. The factory Hondas and Yamahas have no soft tyre, 20 litres and five engines.

If Ducati succeed in scoring either three podiums, two second place finishes, or a single win, then the fuel allowance will be cut from 24 to 22 litres. If Ducati then score three wins in the dry, then they lose the soft tyre. Ducati have said in the past they never use 24 litres for a race distance, only 22.

“I believe it is still too early to speak about that because we have a make a race to understand everything. But the feeling we have with the bike, I believe that if we lose all these things, it means we are really fast and I don’t think that without these advantages we will go back, I think the speed we have now will remain and it will not be a problem to not have the advantage we have now,” said Dovizioso, speaking in Qatar.

“Sure, these advantage help us to arrive in this level. If you look at the lap time of our competitors, they didn’t make my laptime during the practice. It means that when you are at the end of the qualifying, you have the rhythm and energy, three litres of fuel, you make a good laptime. We never put in the medium tyre so we can’t know the best laptime we are able to do, maybe it is three or four tenths less, I don’t know.

“While we have the possibility to use, then we will use because it is better to start at the front. If we lose the advantage because of good result, we will be happy, I believe.”