Dorna Communications 

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) recently sat down to talk to motogp.com about his training, his mentality and how that has changed in 2017 – a season that just saw him take his fifth win of the year. Interestingly, the crux for the former 125 World Champion and now premier class title challenger is something he says everyone on the grid could work on – mental training.

“Everybody now is working on their body, but your mind is much bigger,” says the Italian. “Everyone has a margin to improve in that area. I found something really interesting and it’s working – that’s one of the reasons we’re competitive this year.”

Part of this way of thinking and training comes from Dr Claudio Costa, the founder of the Clinica Mobile, who splits the irrational and rational into two images: a white horse representing the rational and a black horse representing the irrational.

“Dr Costa always tries to explain everything to everyone with black and white horses, the irrational and the rational,” explains Dovizioso. “And he always complained to me that I was always too rational, he said ‘you have big potential but you’re not using it because you are racing just with your head and you don’t feel a lot!’ This year I have used this for sure more than the past…and you can see the result.”

The result is currently second in the standings, 11 points off the top and having just taken his fifth win of the year. Check out the rest of our fascinating peek behind the scenes with Dovizioso before we gear up for Phillip Island.