With an open smile and contagious enthusiasm: this is how Franco Morbidelli greeted to Motorsport.com in the Pramac hospitality in Jerez, during the fourth test of the 2024 MotoGP season that has seen him take steps forward with the Ducati. The new adventure seems to be on the right track, despite having started the year with many problems due to the injury last winter.
Without tests or kilometers above, The Italian-Brazilian began his adaptation to the GP24 in Qatar, and the Spanish Grand Prix confirmed that both he and the team are moving in the right direction. But the current World Cup is extremely competitive, and it will not be easy to return to the top. There are many rivals ahead, but the challenge is even more stimulating for Morbidelli, who also tells us his impressions about the scenario that opens for the championship with the arrival of Liberty Media.
Question: First of all, how are you?
Answer: “Well, well… I’ve recovered well from the accident. I’d say I’ve gotten back into shape pretty quickly.”
Q: Speed is the common denominator of this period of the season, because the adaptation to this Ducati also seems to be going quite quickly…
A: “We are starting to be fast. In Austin, for example, we went directly to Q2 and were among the top seven in all the sessions. The beginning of the year was tough, because we did not want the accident in Portimao, and skipping the preseason It certainly didn’t help. But, thanks to the help of the whole team, who has had and given me the right attitude to face these types of challenges, it seems that we are recovering quite quickly, so good!”
Franco Morbidelli, during the interview
Q: Do you feel very comfortable on the motorcycle? It’s easy to say that you’re fast on the best bike on the grid, but we’ve seen that it’s not so obvious to be fast.
A: “Indeed. The Ducati is probably the best bike on the grid or at least, when it is not, it is the one that fights to be the best, as we saw in Austin. I am very proud of it, happy and pleased to ride it. But what is encouraging is the difference with the faster Ducati: two or three tenths. Not bad, considering the few kilometers we have done. This adaptation process seems to be going very well, I am picking up speed.
Q: You are enjoying this first part of the Ducati adventure with the serenity that characterizes you. Does his way of being, which always seems very calm and relaxed, help you face challenges with a more positive approach?
A: “Definitely, yes. My origins are within me in everything I do. I am proud of where I come from, of my Brazilian half. My mother is from deep Brazil, from the northeast. I have always been taught that way since I was born. My “My mother was always very close to me while I was growing up and passed on a lot of this style to me. Even without realizing it. Now that I’m growing up and I notice it more, I’m increasingly proud of it.”
Q: And this has also helped you in difficult times, I imagine. Let’s think about the knee injury in 2021, or the last one in Portimao…
A: “The difficult moments in an athlete’s career are there, and each person faces them in the best way they believe. I believe that calm, serenity, are the best way to face the good and bad moments. What “It keeps you balanced is calm, and that is the best thing to not get too lost when things happen, and to overcome them in the most appropriate way.”
Q: It seems like you are overcoming all the difficulties in a great way at the moment. Do you feel capable of winning again or fighting for the top in a short time?
A: “Yes, I feel capable of coming back and winning. I don’t know in a short time, it depends on what we understand by a short time. But I am trying to make this time as short as possible. I want to come back and win, I have the team and the right bike to do it.
Q: Do you think you are proving that you can still be in the ointment?
A: “I don’t have too many doubts that we will do very well with the team. We just have to keep working like this and improve, try to do the best job possible in the box, on the track and off it. Keep going like this. We started late, but well”.
Q: It’s going to be difficult this year, when you think about how many competitive rivals there are. Do you think these steps forward are even more evident considering the high level of MotoGP today?
A: “It’s a stellar MotoGP! There are 12 or 14 riders who can aspire to victory and the first positions. As we have seen in these first races, Pecco Bagnaia, Jorge Martín, Pedro Acosta and Marc Márquez are very strong. But in “United States, for example, Maverick Viñales showed that he can go even stronger. It is a MotoGP that is difficult to predict, but very fun. There are many contenders for the first positions.”
Q: A year later, do you still have doubts about the sprint format?
A: “From what my friends have told me, it is very nice. So if they like it, so do I. Surely it is more dangerous for a driver to do two races a weekend and 40 a year. The work and The commitment of the drivers is doubled, but if the public and the people who are at home or on the circuit like it, I am very happy.”
Q: And now comes Liberty Media… another good change!
A: “Yes! Liberty is coming… I don’t know how much things will change for us, and if we drivers will have to increase our workload again. But in any case we have seen that with Formula 1 they have done a great job in many aspects, especially in terms of communication. We will see what they do with us.
Q: So it could be a great World Cup both in talent and spectacle. What would you like to see in a hypothetical MotoGP docuseries?
A: “Who knows! In my opinion, the beauty of this sport is the races and what happens on the track. The fights that occur between the different drivers… That world that exists during the race, not only in the first positions. But now in MotoGP there are fights of this level… in the Top 15! I’ll give you an example: now in the last positions is Fabio Quartararo, who is world champion and one of the most brilliant riders in this category. “A lot of things are happening in the races, and that is something very nice in MotoGP.”
Q: Can we say that Liberty Media has the path paved in this regard? There is no doubt that there is no lack of spectacle in the current MotoGP…
A: “Definitely. There is a diamond in the rough, and the spectacle of MotoGP is incredible. And I want to be there, I would like to be in the zone of the riders who are easier to count, I admit it. Let’s see if I can have a episode of the docuseries just for me”.
