Franco Morbidelli has branded 2024 “an awesome 12 months” for himself and believes he may have fought for fifth within the MotoGP standings with out his pre-season concussion.
The Italian joined Pramac on a works-spec GP24 for final season, however had his preparations curtailed after struggling a concussion in a coaching incident in Portugal within the winter.
He missed all of testing consequently, whereas later revealing that he suffered from reminiscence loss within the weeks after sustaining the damage.
Morbidelli was capable of line up on the grid for the primary spherical of 2024, however struggled to adapt to the GP24 and didn’t rating factors till he was seventh on the French GP.
Within the latter phases of the 12 months Morbidelli turned a daily prime six contender and managed a dash podium on the San Marino GP on his approach to ninth within the standings – albeit 213 factors behind the subsequent GP24 of manufacturing facility rider Enea Bastianini.
With out his damage woes, he believes he may have made it into the highest 5 within the championship however no larger.
“I believe I may have fought for P5 within the championship,” he stated.
“Not P4, not P3. However P5, yeah, I may have fought for it.
Reflecting on the 12 months, Morbidelli added: “Total it was an awesome 12 months for the group.
“It was an awesome 12 months for me as properly. I got here again to struggle for prime spots and I’m actually near prime spots.
“And I’m trying ahead to creating this final step to get there and catch wins and catch podiums as I want to persistently.
“However total it was an awesome 12 months for me and for the group as properly.
“We did an awesome comeback from the start of the 12 months, from the previous two years. So, it’s a optimistic season.”
Morbidelli steps away from the Pramac group for 2025 to race for mentor Valentino Rossi’s VR46 squad and can stay on the precise GP24 he completed the earlier marketing campaign on.
