“I don’t see myself battling for the championship. We are not competitive enough to think about making up points on Marquez and Dovizioso. I think we are going through a difficult technical moment. We need to buckle down and do everything we can to get back to being competitive. The Misano test was a positive day. We did a lot of work in view of the race and we lapped faster than last year. I had the chance to follow Marquez and Pedrosa and it seemed to me that they struggled less. Then on Tuesday Ducati tested and from what I know, they were also very fast. The situation from the last few races was confirmed. During second half of last year,I felt better on the bike and I was more competitive. The only flaw was not having won a race, but I came close a few times and I finished on the podium and in the points quite a bit. It will be hard to repeat that performance this year. I had been in difficulty already in the winter tests, so you should ask also ask Vinales.The other bikes probably improved. At Misano I tested the prototype of the 2018 M1 and I liked it. It is a nice bike to ride, but it does not solve the usual problem with tyre wear. I don’t think we can use the bike(2018) is at the moment. The Japanese engineers have a precise schedule and the one that I tested was just a prototype. I think I’ll ride it again only in the tests in Valencia. Maverick and I have spoken a lot with our engineers to explain what is wrong with the M1 and I think that some upgrades will arrive before the end of the season. We will definitely not give up and I think that on a few tracks we’ll be able to be fast. Silverstone is a nice track, made-to-measure for MotoGP. In some ways it is similar to Brno and I was fast there. We would need a good result, to battle for the podium, although there are always 6 or 7 riders contending for those three spots. Completing 300 GPs,That’s a lot… as always, on one hand it is very satisfying but on the other, it reminds me of how old I am." - Valentino Rossi
