In 2017, Franco Morbidelli took the Moto2 world title with eight wins and twelve podiums. A year later, the Italian completed his rookie season in the premier MotoGP class.
In the Marc VDS team, Morbidelli drove a Honda in 2018, which, however, was not at the current level of development at the time. For the 2019 season he switched to Petronas-Yamaha. In the then newly founded racing team, he drove alongside Fabio Quartararo, for whom it was the first MotoGP season.
And after Morbidelli had struggled in the 2019 season, he suddenly drove more than just on par with Quartararo in the 2020 season. With three wins and five podiums, Morbidelli stayed in contention for the title until the penultimate race. He ended the season as vice world champion behind Suzuki driver Joan Mir.
But in the 2021 season, his third at Petronas-Yamaha, Morbidelli went downhill. A knee injury in the summer meant that he missed five races. When he returned in the fall, he no longer rode for the Petronas team, but for the Yamaha factory team. A place had become free there because Maverick Vinales had parted ways in the summer.
Morbidelli has been a shadow of himself since joining the factory team. Rumors are spreading in the MotoGP paddock that the Italian could lose his place at Yamaha before the end of the upcoming 2023 season.
If there’s anyone who knows Morbidelli well, it’s Alessio “Uccio” Salucci. He is the team director at VR46-Ducati and effectively the right hand of VR46 team owner Valentino Rossi. And thanks to the decades of close friendship between the two, “Uccio” is also involved in the day-to-day business of the VR46 Academy.
At the VR46 Academy, Morbidelli once learned the trade of becoming a top rider in the motorcycle world championship. Apart from him, the current MotoGP world champion Francesco Bagnaia went through exactly this “school”.
When asked what’s going on with Morbidelli, even “Uccio” replies with a shrug: “I don’t know, to be honest, I can’t answer your question,” Salucci said in an interview for the Spanish-language edition of “Motorsport. com” to.
It’s true that the first rider in the MotoGP paddock supported by Rossi wasn’t Morbidelli, but Marco Simoncelli, who died in an accident in 2011. However, the VR46 Academy was founded later. And in this Morbidelli was the first student. Background: Father Livio Morbidelli is a longtime friend of Graziano Rossi, Valentino’s father.
“I can say one thing,” Salucci continues. “The academy and ‘Vale’ himself, they’re concentrating 60 percent on Franco Morbidelli at the moment and 40 percent on the other drivers. We work a lot with him. It’s not easy. It’s not just one thing, it is lots of little things that come together that we don’t understand.”
“We hope he can be competitive this year, but unfortunately I can’t give you an answer as to what’s going on with him at this point,” admits “Uccio” in reference to Morbidelli and his missing form.
Morbidelli has a contract with Yamaha until the end of the year. VR46 takes care of the contract matters for the Italian. However, negotiations are not even being considered at the moment, be it with Yamaha or with another team.
Yamaha already have their eye on Alonso Lopez. The Spaniard has been drawing attention to himself with strong performances in the Moto2 class since the middle of last year. On paper, he could be an option for the second factory Yamaha in the 2024 MotoGP season.
However, it cannot be ruled out that Yamaha will reach an even earlier decision if Morbidelli does not get back on track in the first races of the 2023 season.