Franco Morbidelli is the VR46 Academy rider. From humble beginnings, Morbidelli floor away within the Moto2 class underneath Valentino Rossi’s mentorship till he turned a dominant title winner in 2017 with the Marc VDS squad.
That marked the VR46 Academy’s first world title in grand prix racing. Morbidelli then turned its first MotoGP rider, stepping as much as the premier class in 2018 with the Marc VDS Honda squad earlier than transferring to the Petronas SRT Yamaha outfit in 2019.
A radical “ass-kicking”, as he described it to this author a couple of years in the past, from rookie sensation team-mate Fabio Quartararo offered a needed actuality verify that allowed Morbidelli to dig deeper in 2020. On the Czech GP, he scored his – and the VR46 Academy’s – first MotoGP podium. He then received a maiden win for each on dwelling soil on the San Marino GP.
Two extra wins adopted for Morbidelli, who in the end got here away from 2020 simply 13 factors shy of beating Suzuki’s Joan Mir to the championship. And all of that got here after Yamaha elected pre-season to grab the manufacturing unit M1 he was meant to journey away from him, leaving him with its ‘A-spec’ machine; in different phrases, its older mannequin.
The ass-kicking that had been unleashed upon him by Quartararo was returned in 2020. And rapidly Morbidelli’s inventory in MotoGP was just a bit bit greater. Staying on the identical 2019 bike for 2021 stunted his progress, although, whereas a knee damage additional thwarted issues earlier than he returned later within the season as a manufacturing unit Yamaha rider instead of the ousted Maverick Vinales.
And actually, nothing went properly for Morbidelli after that time. One of the best consequence he had at Yamaha’s manufacturing unit squad was a brace of fourths in a moist Argentina weekend in 2023. And that was his solely high 5 in two and a half years by the top of that season.
A transfer to the Pramac Ducati squad for 2024 was set to place Morbidelli again on the fitting trajectory. However then he suffered a critical concussion in a pre-season coaching incident. Lacking all of testing on the GP24 – in addition to going by means of a scary stretch the place he had no reminiscence recall – Morbidelli was on the again foot for many of the season.
It wouldn’t be till the French GP that he would rating factors with a seventh on the Sunday. Barring a DNF in Barcelona, he was constantly within the high 10 from Mugello to Aragon. Within the latter levels of the marketing campaign he managed a dash podium on the San Marino GP and a run of fifth, fourth, fifth, sixth from Emilia Romagna to Australia.
Franco Morbidelli, Pramac Racing Ducati, 2024 Japanese MotoGP
© Gold and Goose
Valentino Rossi to thank for Franco Morbidelli’s 2025 journey
Within the first 10 rounds, Morbidelli’s points-per-round common was 6.1. Within the last half of the season, it rose sharply to 11.2 to offer him 173 for the 12 months. That mentioned, he’s nonetheless and not using a grand prix podium because the 2021 Spanish GP.
And let’s not sugarcoat this: Morbidelli in all probability isn’t on the 2025 grid if his nice pal and mentor Rossi doesn’t have a crew with a slot out there for him. It’s arduous not to take a look at Morbidelli in VR46 colors for 2025 as actually the final hurrah of a MotoGP profession that has promised a lot however – for a lot of it by means of no fault of his personal – delivered so little.
“Vale, he loves Franco as a result of he has a really, excellent relationship,” mentioned crew director Uccio Salucci in response to a query from Crash.internet following VR46’s 2025 launch. There’s little question Rossi has carried out so much for Morbidelli through the years, and Morbidelli has additionally carried out so much for the VR46 Academy.
And whereas that is very a lot a wedding borne out of privilege, VR46 isn’t going to take a seat by and easily let Morbidelli journey round till he decides he’s had sufficient. Already, the work to get him to get extra out of the GP24 he’ll proceed to race this 12 months has begun.
“Initially, I’m very comfortable that Franco is with our crew this 12 months,” Salucci added. “He’s an excellent rider. I’ve recognized Franco very properly. For me, within the final a part of the 2024 season, Franco for positive improved so much. For me, he wants one thing on his driving model, one thing to be modified, as a result of for me within the final a part of 2024 he had an excellent enchancment.
“And he arrives into our crew, our crew is sort of a household for him. We even have Idalio Gavira, he’s our rider coach, and for positive we already begin to change one thing in his driving model. It’s the fitting crew on this second for Franco. For positive, we give 100%, now we have an excellent bike as a result of now we have the 2024 bike for him.”
The ‘proper place, proper time’ mantra is one thing Morbidelli himself acknowledged throughout VR46’s launch occasion.
“For me, it’s a really huge deal to race for Pertamina VR46 Racing Staff,” he mentioned. “It’s a really huge deal as a result of everyone contained in the crew I do know, I’ve recognized each single individual for a very long time. I used to be raised by the fellows of the crew, primarily.
“It’s a fantastic honour for me to hold these colors. We’re from the identical village, even when I used to be born in Rome I used to be raised in Tavullia. All my pals are from Tavullia; I’m extra a Tavullian than a Roman. So, the very fact of bringing Valentino’s colors is a giant duty to do good issues and do the most effective I can.”
Learn extra: Inside Valentino Rossi’s chase for a tenth world title
As Salucci factors out, qualifying was a substantial weak point for Morbidelli final 12 months. He scored one entrance row begin in 20, on the San Marino GP. However over the course of the 12 months, his common qualifying consequence was ninth. New team-mate Fabio Di Giannantonio, who missed three rounds with damage and was on a year-old bike, achieved the identical. Within the last two rounds, Morbidelli stacked back-to-back high 5 qualifying outcomes, marking the primary time all season he was in a position to do that and hinting at real enchancment.
“I feel, now with the identical bike he had final 12 months, we are able to be taught so much to attempt to make one thing very, excellent within the first a part of the season as a result of all the time whenever you get the again from final 12 months you’ve some benefits within the first half as a result of the manufacturing unit bikes all the time need to take a while to get to the fitting second,” crew supervisor Pablo Nieto commented.
“So, I feel with Franco now we have to make one thing that appears like we aren’t doing something however in the long run is essential as a result of I feel we could be within the high 5 with him in every race.”
The soar between the GP23 and the GP24 caught everybody without warning, however that very same gulf isn’t more likely to develop once more this 12 months given simply how huge an impression the 2024 Michelin rear tyre had on the pecking order. So sticking with one among MotoGP’s most dominant bikes is one thing that may probably work to Morbidelli’s benefit as he appears to be like to construct on the end-of-season progress from final 12 months.
“GP24, it’s a fantastic bike. It was born nice, it received the primary race of its life, and the check in Malaysia it was unbelievably quick already the primary time that bike was on observe,” he mentioned. “So, I consider so much in that GP24 bundle. It’s a fantastic machine, it’s one of many best packages we’ve seen.”
Morbidelli is ready to profit, too, from a larger presence at MotoGP rounds this 12 months by Rossi. Having scaled again his automobile racing commitments for 2025, Rossi is aiming to attend “six, seven races minimal” this season. As all VR46 Academy riders word when Rossi turns up, it all the time gives them with a lift.
And whereas Morbidelli solely has a 2025 contract in place, Salucci famous that the crew sees this as a longer-term challenge. Ideally, it could like him to proceed with VR46 and achieve success there. But when its efforts to remodel his profession show profitable, the crew won’t begrudge him transferring to any manufacturing unit crew.
Morbidelli has lofty ambitions of getting again to the highest step of the rostrum in 2025 and VR46 is clearly assured it could assist him on this activity. And whereas he received’t be checked out for a title cost – that very a lot being left to Bagnaia – there will probably be no scarcity of delight throughout the VR46 camp ought to it show profitable in firing up one among its most-loved sons…
