The Italian spent most of 2008 at the back of the grid after failing to acclimatise to Ducati's GP8. He finished a poor 17th in the championship, having taken a solitary top five finish compared to teammate Casey Stoner's six victories.
Although he had an offer to rejoin the Gresini Honda team, where he had taken five wins during his previous sojourn, the 26-year-old decided to move to the struggling Kawasaki team, whose riders John Hopkins and Anthony West fared little better than Melandri this year.
"(Going to Kawasaki) is a very difficult challenge," Melandri told Italia1 television.
"No one else would have gone for my choice, but that's what I felt like doing, I want to try it."
He believes Kawasaki have the potential to do much better than their recent results suggest.
"Kawasaki have the budget and the will to do things, so this is a good start," said Melandri.
"Certainly it isn't easy, we need to work hard. With the single tyre supplier we know it's a tyre Kawasaki struggle to use, Hopkins told me, so we'll have to work a lot on the chassis to make it work.
"We'll see. At the moment they lack grip during the race, and I saw that John's tyre today was ruined. They lack many things, so I don't know until I try it.
"It's a challenge, but I can manage to work based on my needs. I hope to be able to build a bike for my riding style, which is something I've been missing, then we'll see how it goes. But now I just need to get back on a bike and enjoy myself."
He stands by his decision to choose Kawasaki over the Gresini Honda option.
"I could have gone back to Fausto (Gresini), but I made this choice for my own reasons," Melandri said.
"However, I can say it wasn't for the money. I liked the Kawasaki last year already when I had a Honda, so I liked it, I liked the enthusiasm with which they looked for me even now that I wasn't going well.
"Fausto also looked for me with enthusiasm so I thank him a lot for everything he taught me, however I wanted to make a change. I wanted to do something different: I know it's the more difficult option, but I've suffered so much in life that nothing scares me."
Melandri added that he had already put his Ducati experience behind him.
"I think that to go back over the mistakes to see who made them and why is useless for me, it wouldn't give me a better future," he said.
"So I just want to think about the present, get ready for tomorrow, and leave behind the past. It's been a difficult year, I suffered and it was useful experience."
He believes his riding style was simply unsuitable for the Ducati, which will be ridden by Honda convert Nicky Hayden next season.
"I haven't had a problem with Stoner, I just had a problem in finding a feeling with the bike and wasn't able to be quick," said Melandri.
"He rides a bike that is very difficult for my riding style. We'll see if Nicky will adapt and integrate well in this family. I hope he won't have the tough life I had."
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