Perhaps it was the recent criticism from Aleix Espargaro, perhaps it was his signing with the VR46 Ducati team for next season, or simply more time to understand the bike. What is certain is that Franco Morbidelli was one of the great protagonists of the first day of track action at the Red Bull Ring, home of the 2024 MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix.
The Pramac team rider set the second fastest time overall in this afternoon’s practice, which defined the 10 riders who will be able to directly qualify for Q2 in tomorrow’s qualifying, 281 thousandths of a second behind the new track record set by his compatriot Francesco Bagnaia.
“I’m getting the hang of it with the GP24,” said a calm Morbidelli after the tests. “Today I did a great time attack, certainly also thanks to Martin’s hook, but we were already fast in the first time attack and especially in the pace, which is very positive and I’m very happy. Positive day from all points of view.”
“Have a big chance? We’ll see tomorrow, because we still have another session where we can work with used tyres. We’ll have a better idea of the real race paces. But yes, today I was strong both with the medium and with the used medium”.
This morning, the VR46 Ducati team announced the signing of Franco Morbidelli for next season, making him Fabio Di Giannantonio’s new teammate. This news may have given Franco extra motivation to give his best, extrapolating a great single lap time and a pace that puts him among the best.
“Good news certainly makes you happy and when I’m happy I do well…”, continued the Italian-Brazilian from Pramac.
Franco Morbidelli, VR46 Racing Team, Alessio Salucci, Team Director VR46 Racing Team, Pablo Nieto, Team Manager VR46 Racing Team
Photo by: Media VR46
For 2025, according to Morbidelli, Ducati and the VR46 team have not yet decided who will have the Desmosedici GP25. Should he still race with the 2024, Morbidelli said he is not worried: according to him, it will be difficult for Ducati to build a bike that is very different in performance from the current one.
“It’s still all to be defined for next year about who will have the new bike and who will have this year’s bike. It will certainly be very difficult… I see it as very complicated to make a big step forward from this bike. Because this one is already going really well. We’ll see which bike I’ll ride and we’ll see how I go.”
“Of course, it already happened to me once to go very fast with a team that I knew and a bike that I knew well (in 2020, editor’s note). We’ll see what we can do. Now it’s better to stay focused on this year and the work of 2024. Today we are second and we must continue to improve tomorrow to be first. The important thing now is to focus on the present, because the future promises well”.
To conclude, Morbidelli commented ironically on the jab from the always sharp Aleix Espargaro. The Aprilia rider, a few hours ago, had stated that he did not understand the presence of the Italian and Jack Miller in MotoGP, considering the recent results obtained by the two.
“Nice joke by Aleix. He’s very funny. I don’t know what to say, look. He had the wrong timing to say certain things, come on!”.
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