Franco Morbidelli quizzed about Ducati switch after awful results for Japanese bikes in British MotoGP sprint race
Morbidelli will lose his MotoGP ride with Yamaha for the 2024 season, and Ducati have c🌳onfirmed their interest in bringing him 𓆏into their unit, likely with the Mooney VR46 team.
In the sprint race at the British MotoGP, his 15th-place finish was shockingly the best result for any Japanese man꧂uf🔯actured bike.
Asked afterwards if he was ♔looking forward to riding “a bike that performs” next year, Morb🧜idelli hesitated and chuckled, then said: “This is too much of an easy question!
“I must focus on the present to do ♊the best job that I can do, right here, right now.”
His teammate Fabio Quartararo qualified last on the entire grid while the Honda bikes also languished behind the dominant Ducati꧒s, plus also the KTMs and Aprilias in Saturday’s sprint.
🌟Morbidelli said about the downfall of the once-dominant Yamaha: “If you analyse what happened last year, in the beginning Quartararo had amazing power and speed, and a very aggressive riding style. He was able to pull away in the championship.
“But in the second half of the season we were alrᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚeady able to see that there a big gap between ♚Europeans and Japanese.
“This year, there was an even bigger step.
“I think about the present🐓 - right here, right now - the adversities I faced last season made me a better person, a better athlete.”
He said about his 15th-place finish: “We’ll take it because the competitio🐓n is tough. It’s not that people areꩵ cruising around - apart from Marc at one point!
“We tried to get the maximum from the race. There w♓as the potential to do more. The potential was less than the Ducatis, KTMs or Ap🌠rilias.
“I tried to understand how we can improve. That’s what I could do today♐.
“[Sunday] the race will be in dry condition💝s, very tough.”
He cited rಌear grip as his key issue, and also insistඣed there was no difference with more or less standing water on the track.
“In the morning I was alone, I could expre𒉰ss a different riding style and rꦕisk more.
“[In the sprint race] many people overtook me in th🦩e beginning. I struggled to catch up at the end. But then I💃 recovered positions from Fernandez, Marc, Bastianini and Bagnaia.
“But there was no differen💜ce in performance or feeling from the morning to afternoon.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering ev🙈erything from American sports,𝔍 to football, to F1.
