Second year with Ducatisecond year with the GP24, but first year with the team Valentino Rossi. Although Franco Morbidelli was one of the first riders to join the VR46 Riders Academy, 2025 will be the first year he will race with the 'Dottore' as boss in the MotoGP World Championship. It will be the “loop of a loop”, as Alessio 'Uccio' Salucci said Motorsport.com a few weeks ago.
“It fills me with pride, and it's extra pressure“, confessed the Italian-Brazilian after his debut with the team last Tuesday, during the qualifying tests in Barcelona. “Run for the team Valentino Rossi sets the bar very high in my opinion, and we hope to achieve it [las expectativas] in the future. I have stability, because the bike is the same. All the people around me change. But I know them too, so it’s a change, but not a big one.”
Thus, the day of testing at the Circuit of Barcelona-Catalonia marked the first day of work with the Pertamina Enduro VR46. The Roman drove the GP24, the same one he used until the previous Sunday with the team Pramac Racingbut now with other colors.
Morbidelli finished in seventh place on Tuesday, seven and a half tenths behind the leader after completing 52 laps: “In my opinion, it was a great day. Arriving at the team, having a first contact with everyone, even if I don’t.” I'm not saying I know them, because I know them all, but I contact them… It was a very positive day. Working with Matteo [Flamigni] and the whole team, we tried some adjustments. We were more or less in test mode, and still we were also quite fast, so I'm happy“, he commented.
“I will remember all the improvements we made in every session, every weekend, every time we saw that there was something more than in the previous Grand Prix.“He continued later, but already looking towards 2024, a complicated year in which he missed pre-season testing due to injury.”It has been a very beautiful year to live and see. We improved to the top of the category. The last step is still missing, but we have made a lot of progress“.
With 2024 already over, “Frankie” began 2025 with the main goal of improving even further: “I want to be fast in every situation, on every track, at every moment, from the start to the end of the season, that's what I aim for“. Could the GP24 have an advantage at the start of the season because it is a much faster bike? “Yes, we will see if that is the case. It will be a year in which I aspire to do well, to improve on this year's results, which were very good from the second half of the year,” he concluded.
