Franco Morbidelli, runner-up to Suzuki's Joan Mir in the 2020 MotoGP world championship, will again be the only Yamaha rider on the older 'A-Spec'ꦗ machine this season.

"That'ಞs a very strange one for me," new Factory Ducati signing 🍃Jack Miller said recently.

The Australian, who rates Morbidelli as the man to beat based on his form at the end of last season, added that keeping𒁏 the Petronas rider on the lower-spec bike is "the only question mark I have on him" for 2021.

So why isn't Morbidel♓li, who won three races last season, being bumped-up to the same Factory-Spec bike as new team-mate Valentino Rossi plus official Yamaha riders Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Vinales?

"Franky had a gre꧋at second half to the season and impressed many people with his performance," said Yamaha Racing managing director Lin Jarvis.

"With regard to his spec of bike for🅘 this coming season, the spec is chosen by Yamaha and by the teams. But there are also financial consequ💞ences to the spec of the bike you have.

"A real factory bike is a lot more expensive than an A-Spec bike. There are also timing issues in terms of when have to place the ord♓er for the materials. There are ad♉ditionally this year Covid issues. We're not in the most favourable economic times ever.

"The decision for the spec of bike for Franky was taken in th🌌e middle of last year. So it's not something that could have been changed in October or November.

"Doe♊s Franky deserve to have top spec? I would say yes. Is it possible? Unfortunately, the answer is no.

"But as you saw last year, the A-spec bike is very similar and v🔥ery performant. And with the engines frozen, you could imagine that the 🅺bike could be equally performant this year as well.

"So I do♎n't think that Franky will have any big disadvantage."

Indeed, former Petronas te☂am-mate Quartararo believes it was Morbidelli's choice to stay with the A-Spec for 2021, after witnessing🅠 the problems for the Factory-Spec riders in the final races of last year.

"I remember tha🐓t last year he [Franky] asked before Aragon to have the 2020 [Factory] bike, and then he asked to have again the [A-Spec] bike he already had for this year," said the Frenchman.

"So I think it's a bet, because last year's bike of Franco was so consistent and also he was also doing a perfect job. I don’t know, he 𝐆made a choice that I think is also clever, he goes in a different separate way, but I think it's worth it to have this kind of bet."

Nonetheless, Jarvis confirmed that the 'new generation' Factory-Spec b๊ike should be a much more refined package for 2021.

"If you buy a new car, then generally, it's better to avoid the first few months! That's a fact of life," Jarvi🦄s smiled. "And definitely, the factory bike had a generation change last year.

"We can definitely improve that bike in every area this year. So I do think that you will see the Factory-Spec bik💯e more performant and more consistent this year."

And since those developments include moving the Factory-Spec chassis 16꧋8澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:closer to Morbidelli's A-Spec bikꦫe for 2021, the differences&nb🅰sp;betwee♌n the two types of M1 is likely to be smaller.

"For sure, the direction that Yamaha has taken for this year's [Factory] bike is to go closer to🌠 Franky's chassis compared to what we had last year," said Monster Yamaha team director Massimo Meregalli.

By continuing to have two different bike specif🥃ications on track Yamaha will also continue to have access to a wider variety of data.

"[Yamaha] could really see what worked la🐎st year and what didn't, by comparing the two bike sp💧ecifications," Meregalli confirmed.