Andrea Dovizioso says his main focus for the 2009 season will be to step on the podium as much as possible in an interview he gave with MotoGP.com at the EICMA motorcycle exhibition in Milan last week.

“To finish ahead of Dani would be important, and I am confident about my chances, but I will be mainly focused on stepping on the podium any time I can, being consistent with my new Honda HRC throughout the season”.

Interestingly he has already made a comment about Alberto Puig (Pedrosa’s manager), who savaged Pedrosa’s former team-mate Nicky Hayden at the end of the 2008 MotoGP season.

“Dani is a former 125cc and 250cc world champion and a great rider, but first of all he is a good guy, probably even shyer than I am. Maybe this is the reason why we don’t have a great feeling yet, but we will have a lot of time to know each other.

“I think right now he is not reaching his level on the road, maybe also because of his manager,” added Dovizioso, referring to Alberto Puig, who had a spat with Hayden and accused him of being unable to set up a bike and copying Dani’s settings. The 2009 season will be interesting for Dovizioso and Pedrosa as Honda have stated that the best bike parts and support will go to the leading rider in the season, which could easily cause infighting within the Repsol Honda team throughout the 2009 campaign. Doviziso is not short on talent as he proved in 2008 on his satellite Honda, and could easily be challenging Pedrosa in 2009 as the number one rider. It will certainly be a baptism of fire in his first year as a factory rider and all the politics that go along with it.

Dovizioso also gave his views on Rossi and Stoner:
“Valentino and I are friends, and we get along with each other very well. Valentino managed to win the title in a season in which Casey Stoner was usually the fastest rider on the circuit. This means that sometimes regularity is even more important than speed. Valentino’s driving style has changed a lot since he switched to Yamaha, he is focusing more on precision. I try to learn a lot from my colleagues, and firstly from great champions like Valentino”.