Andrea Dovizioso will swap MotoGP Ducati for DTM Audi at Misano this year
Images: Audi Sport
Ducati MotoGP rider Andrea Dovizioso will temporarily switch to four-wheel racing when he drives for Audi in the DTM at Misano on the weekend of June 7.
He will race for the WRT Team replacing Brazilian Pietro Fittipaldi, who will resume support duties for the Haas Formula 1 team at the Canadian Grand Prix.
The 33-year-old Italian, who currently sits third in the riders’ standings, tested the Audi RS5 DTM on Tuesday after the opening race at Hockenheim, and will test the car at Circuit Marco Simoncelli again at the end of May.
“It’s tough to find the time to prepare for it during the MotoGP season but I am really looking forward to compete in such a high-level as the DTM,” said Dovizioso.
“The car is amazing, but it’s a different challenge compared with my Desmosedici GP and I need to get prepared, so I did many laps in the simulator before stepping into it for the first time.
“Misano is a special track for every Italian driver and the place where I scored an incredible win last year so I’m very excited and thankful for this opportunity.”
Audi, which is owned by the Volkswagen Group, bought Ducati in 2012 in a deal worth nearly €900m.
Dieter Gass, head of Audi Motorsport, added: “I’m delighted that in Andrea Dovizioso we managed to get a real superstar to race as a guest in the DTM.
“MotoGP riders are true heroes in Italy. Andrea hails from the Misano area, won the grand prix there last year and is going to attract many additional fans. We’re already extremely excited to see how he’s going to fare in his DTM debut.
“That he’s taking time out for the DTM between two MotoGP races is fantastic and not to be taken for granted at all.
“I’d like to particularly thank Ducati’s CEO Claudio Domenicali and Luigi Dall’Igna, General Manager of Ducati Corse, who agreed to this guest entry. That’s a big thing for the DTM and for motor sport in general.”
Dovizioso finished fourth in the 2019 Spanish MotoGP Grand Prix and ended the last two seasons as runner-up. He is three points behind Marc Márquez in the current standings and two behind second-place Álex Rins.
Watch Dovizioso’s DTM debut here with free streams of practice from Misano.
Aprilia’s RS-GP has utterly dominated the start of 2026, so how did MotoGP’s smallest manufacturer get here and what does Ducati need to do to close the gap?
Aprilia rider Marco Bezzecchi is dominating the 2026 MotoGP season with the same quiet, truculent self-assurance that has always made him impossible to ignore, and even harder to interview
The first Brazilian MotoGP round in 22 years was characterised by a track that was falling apart, not that Bezzecchi and Aprilia seemed to mind
These are happy days for Aprilia, which leads the MotoGP constructors' championship for the first time in its history. And there’s no one better to tell its story than team manager Paolo Bonora, who joined Aprilia in 2002 to do pioneering electronics work on the Cube MotoGP bike
