MotoGP | Morbidelli: “Returning to Portimao doesn't give me negative feelings”

Portimao has not brought Franco Morbidelli well at the start of 2024. It was precisely on the Algarve circuit, in fact, that the Prima Pramac Racing rider was the victim of a bad accident while training on a Panigale V4, in which he suffered a head injury that forced him to give up pre-season testing and therefore denied him the chance to discover his new weapon, the Ducati Desmosedici GP24.

For many, returning to this place could be almost traumatic, but once again we had proof that pilots are a breed apart. Upon his arrival at the circuit, when he was asked if he felt any particular emotions, Franco shrugged, appearing truly relaxed at the idea of ​​riding a MotoGP tomorrow morning.

“It doesn't give me any negative or particular feelings, because first of all this is a beautiful track. But then the accident I had was so particular and so singular, that technically it is very, very, very difficult for me to have it happen again with the MotoGP So, even from that point of view I don't think there will be things that will affect me or slow down my way of thinking”, said Morbidelli.

The transition from Yamaha to Ducati, therefore, is proving to be more complicated than expected. However, the step forward made in Qatar between Friday and Sunday was quite big. The goal for this weekend is therefore to try to repeat a progression of that type.

“If we manage to make as many steps forward, it will mean that we will get there quickly, but I don't want to take too long. It will be important to take the right steps and the right things, continuing to improve like in Qatar. Definitely going from four to one second away it's easier than going from one to zero, but the climb must continue this weekend too,” he explained.

The most interesting fact is that his gap to the winner was 23″ in the Sprint, over a distance of just 11 laps, and 24″ on Sunday, when however the race was twice as long. In fact, it means having halved the gap against the best.

“That is an indication of the improvement that we managed to have in just three days of approaching the bike on a track on which everyone had already done tests, accumulating many more kilometers than me on the bike. The indication of the last gap taken , which was half the price of the Sprint, is certainly positive. We will need to continue on this path and continue to improve. The bike already gives me a lot of confidence, little by little the time will come to start exploring it more thoroughly”, he concluded.