JiR delighted with Dovizioso's form

After disappointing seasons with Makoto Tamada and Shinya Nakano under Konica Minolta branding, Montiron's team have joined forces with 250cc outfit Team Scot and Dovizioso for 2008.

The 21-year-old Italian rider, who finished second behind runaway champion Jorge Lorenzo in the 2007 250cc series, made an instant impact in his first MotoGP tests last winter and was often the quickest of the rookies.

Montiron admitted that he had been taken aback by Dovizioso's initial performances.

"Sincerely, I didn't expect Andrea to be so fast right from the beginning, but he pleasantly surprised us by showing his good feeling with both the machine and the tyres," said Montiron in an interview with the official MotoGP website.

Dovizioso's form has convinced Montiron to give him a greater role in shaping the team's development programme.

"From now on, Andrea will be more closely involved with his technical staff," he said. "We've built the team around him and the technicians can now take the time to learn the secret of our package alongside him."

Montiron, who voiced his disappointment with former rider Nakano's performances during 2007, added that he had very high hopes for his reorganised team this season.

"As with every year, we start the season with high expectations, and particularly this year I have made a lot of organisational changes," he said.

He is also confident that JiR Scot will enjoy equipment parity with their fellow customer Honda teams.

"I think that all non-factory Honda teams will be using the same material with the same timeframe, therefore there will be no difference between what we have and what the other teams are running," said Montiron. "I'm curious as to how the rest of the new machines will perform at the first test at Sepang."

MotoGP testing resumes at Sepang from 22-24 January.