PUPULIN SAYS IANNONE COULD HAVE CHALLENGED MARQUEZ FOR 2017 TITLE

Honda crew chief Cristhian Pupulin believes Andrea Iannone might have challenged Marc Marquez for the 2017 MotoGP title had he remained with Ducati instead of moving to Suzuki. Pupulin, who spent years at Ducati before later working with KTM and Honda, shared the view in an interview with Moto.it ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.

Iannone’s Ducati departure followed Jorge Lorenzo’s arrival for 2017, a move confirmed during the previous season. Lorenzo took the seat and Iannone joined Suzuki, while Andrea Dovizioso became Marquez’s closest title rival. Dovizioso and Marquez each won six Grands Prix, but Dovizioso finished 37 points behind the Spaniard. Lorenzo, meanwhile, struggled to adapt to Ducati after nine seasons with Yamaha, ending the championship seventh with three podiums.

“I always say, in 2017, if Iannone hadn’t gone to Suzuki, then maybe he would have won the world championship,” Pupulin said. Asked why he thought Iannone could have achieved what Dovizioso could not, he replied: “He had more talent, and he was faster, but he was more unreliable.”

Pupulin also contrasted Iannone’s speed with Dovizioso’s contribution to Ducati’s development. “We couldn’t develop the bike with him, of course; we developed the bike with Dovizioso, exactly as we needed to set the lap times,” he said of Iannone, adding that the rider “just didn’t know any better.”

In Pupulin’s assessment, Dovizioso’s methodical approach helped make the Ducati competitive. After reviewing Marquez’s data from his Honda years, Pupulin said the Spaniard’s machinery had been “genuinely inferior” to that of his rivals. He described Dovizioso as “a very logical and rational person, a hard worker” who was good at developing the bike: “He sorted the bike out, he built the bike, so to speak.”

Pupulin added that Dovizioso was then able to enjoy fighting Marquez. His comments suggest that Iannone may have had greater raw pace, but that Dovizioso’s consistency and technical input were central to Ducati’s title challenge in 2017.