Franco Morbidelli Delivers Hard Truth About Intensifying MotoGP Competition

Apr 14, 2024; Austin, TX, USA; Franco Morbidelli (21) of Italy and Prima Pramac Racing before the MotoGP Grand Prix of The Americas at Circuit of The Americas. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
Apr 14, 2024; Austin, TX, USA; Franco Morbidelli (21) of Italy and Prima Pramac Racing before the MotoGP Grand Prix of The Americas at Circuit of The Americas. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Former Pramac MotoGP rider Franco Morbidelli, who moved to the VR46 Racing Team this year, has acknowledged that Ducati's opponents will be better in the 2025 season. However, he remains unconcerned about the reduction in the number of Ducatis on the grid, given Pramac's exit from the Ducati stable to become a Yamaha satellite team.

Morbidelli will ride the proven Desmosedici GP24 MotoGP bike, while his teammate Fabio Di Giannantonio will ride the latest GP25, like factory riders Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez. Despite the disadvantage, Morbidelli is confident in admitting that he will be aiming for the top three positions but acknowledged the need to improve his qualifying performances. When asked about the reduction in the number of Ducati's MotoGP bikes on the grid, Morbidelli said:

“I really don't know, but I'm sure that Ducati will be up there.

“It's not going to make a lot of difference to me if the Ducatis are six or eight because I'm not looking for P6-7-8. I'm looking for P3-2-1. So the number, from eight to six, is not going to affect me.

“But for sure other manufacturers are going to step their game up. They're going to improve. Our opponents are going to be better than last year and let's see how the balances are going to go.

“But we are focused on bringing the team as high as we can, with the packages we have. These are two packages, mine and of course Fabio’s [di Giannantonio, GP25] deserve to be on the top spots. So we will try to do that.”

Explaining the areas he needs to work on, such as his pace in qualifying and tire management, Morbidelli said:

“First of all, I will have to reconfirm the things that it looked like I improved last year, such as qualifying.

“Last year I was missing a lot in qualifying. I was starting on the third or fourth row and then to fight for the podium from back there is really difficult.

“But it looked like in the last two races I was able to make it better and started P4 and P5. So first of all, we have to reconfirm that improvement and then make it even better. Because P4 and 5 is good but not ideal.

“Qualifying was the main factor that affected me quite a lot last year but of course there are also things in terms of race pace I need to improve, like tyre management.”

He added:

“I'm looking to improve on last year's performances, which were really good from the second-half of the season to the end.

“We made huge steps. As I said, we were starting a bit too far behind, but we had great pace in basically all races in the second half.

“So I'm looking to improve the areas that I missed last year to fight for these podiums and top positions, and bring the colours of the team as high as possible. As the team deserves.”


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