If it’s true that a rider making it to MotoGP is in itself a guarantee that the talent and potential is there, that doesn’t always seem to be the case, but in the case of Franco Morbidelli, it definitely is. The Italian was Moto2 champion in 2017, moved up to motorcycling’s top category and two years later finished the season as runner-up, but since then problems have followed.
As Motorcycle Sports reported a few days ago, 2023 was a season in which the #21 showed a little more of his true worth, where consistency was the rider’s “face” on the track, even if the results weren’t what he would have liked.
If for some years, especially since 2022, the rider has been talking about the way he needed to ride the M1, which required a far more aggressive style in order to get the best out of what the bike had to offer, he even admitted that riding like this was, after many months, more internalised but, for 2024 and after improving, Morbidelli will change teams and then to one that in 2023 had one of the riders, and bike, fighting for the title, Pramac.
With a Desmosedici GP24 at his disposal, his doubts about the bike’s competitiveness are over, just as they were with the Yamaha M1 he rode in recent years. Little is known about the 2024 version, but from the comments of the riders – Pecco Bagnaia, Enea Bastianini, Jorge Martín – it should follow in the line of its predecessors and be an improvement on the previous version.
Naturally needing a period to adapt, it remains to be seen what Morbidelli can do this year after that first “impact”, but with his talent, there’s little doubt that the Italian could be one of the surprises for 2024, even if for the moment very little attention has been paid to him, with the eyes of the “new” Ducati riders being centred on Marc Márquez, who will be at Gresini Racing on a Desmosedici GP23.
It’s worth remembering that Morbidelli was runner-up in the 2020 World Championship, the year in which Joan Mir became champion, but since then he’s been 19th, 17th and now 13th, with Ducati coming at a decisive stage in the rider’s career, who at 29 will have a golden opportunity to return to the brightest spots in MotoGP.
What’s your prediction for Morbidelli in 2024? Share it with us.