The Austrian Grand Prix weekend began with a barrage of controversy on Thursday as Aleix Espargaro, who will retire at the end of the season, questioned the legitimacy of Franco Morbidelli securing a place on the MotoGP grid next season.
A signature that was officially confirmed on Friday morning, when the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team, owned by Valentino Rossi, made the announcement, completing the rider lineup for the next two seasons with two Romans: Franky himself, who will have a Ducati GP24, and Fabio Di Giannantonio, who will have the latest full factory model from the Bologna-based manufacturer at his disposal, the 2025 version.
Morbidelli kept his usual calm and composure to avoid controversy with Aleix: “Nice joke by Aleix, very funny,” he said. “I don’t know what to say, look. He has bad timing in saying these things,” he added.
The truth is that, even if this season he is on a Ducati GP24 identical to that of Jorge Martin and the official riders Pecco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini, Franco is starting to make some steps forward.
The Italian was extremely unlucky with a heavy crash during pre-season while training in Portimao aboard a Panigale V4 road bike, suffering a blow to the head that kept him in hospital for several days for observation. He has therefore missed the entire pre-season.
“There are a lot of kilometers, a lot of work that he was unable to do and a lot less information,” recalls Pramac sports director Gino Borsoi. “He started the season with a huge disadvantage.” Certainly weighed down by this situation, Morbidelli performed far from the level of the other three GP24 riders, especially Pecco and Jorge, even if in the last races, little by little, he made his presence felt.
This Sunday he started eighth on the grid, from the third row, but he crossed the line of Marc Marquez in the middle of the track, they touched and he ended up in the escape road at the first corner, rejoining the race in 17th place. From there he worked his way up to eighth.
“The pace we had was good enough to be in the top five, we are still a bit far from fighting for the podium. But it was fun to be able to do some overtaking, feel the speed,” he said.
On the incident with Marquez, which the Spaniard called fortuitous, he said: “When I was preparing to tackle the first corner I saw that Marc had a problem with the lowering device, I knew he had started much slower than the others. When I went to brake, I was on his left and he, probably to avoid Jack Miller, moved to his left and we both ended up off the track,” he explained the maneuver.
Valentino Rossi was at the Red Bull Ring this weekend. “I had the chance to talk to him,” Franky admitted when Motorsport.com asked if they had met. And when asked what his friend wants from him for next season, Morbidelli was succinct: “He asks me to go fast on the bike.”
A very basic request, the minimum a pilot always wants: “Yes, I always try, but it doesn’t always go well,” he confessed.
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