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Calm and satisfied: this is how Franco Morbidelli appears in the last of the three days of official MotoGP testing in Sepang. After setting the best time of the day yesterday, the Pertamina Enduro VR46 team rider continued to work positively on this Friday at the Malaysian track, hoisting himself to third place in the standings with about an hour left in the session. After also performing a race simulation at the hottest time of the day.
"The balance of these first three days with the new team is super positive," Franco admitted, "I worked fantastically with the new team, it didn't feel like the first time we worked together because we seem to be able to understand each other well and that makes me very happy. We improved little by little and we were able to try a lot of things that will be useful for us this year. I also improved in the time attack: I improved my time attack from last year by three tenths even though I could only take advantage of one tire, because with the second tire I found traffic and made mistakes. So, I am really very happy. This is a great start, also for the team, for VR46 and for Pertamina, because to start like this after a complicated year is a great boost. I know we had Fabio's problem on the first day, but in the meantime things on my side are going really well and this is great to keep the momentum going."
Getting to know his new team was precisely one of Morbido's main concerns on the eve of these tests.
"The main aspect was definitely to understand each other and tell them what you want from the bike so that they bring it to the track. It's very important that the team gathers your feedback in the right way and that we all communicate together in the right way. That's the main thing to take care of when you come to a new team, and we did that very well," Franco acknowledged, rejoicing at this result: "If it boosted my self-confidence? I don't have self-confidence problems, I'm a pretty confident rider. I have my ups and downs, but this is definitely one of the highest moments. So I am quite confident."
Good indications and encouraging signs also came from the race simulation performed by Franco at perhaps the least suitable time of the day.
"I did 16 laps. How did it go? Good. I missed doing a long run in Malaysia on day three, at 1 p.m. I don't know what I could have done to make it even more complicated. Maybe bring a passenger. I don't know," he commented wryly, "It was really tough, it was very hot and it was very challenging to do a simulation after three days at the end of the morning work. It was cool, though, and I was fast. I was almost forgetting about it but that's good, if we forget about the heat, the fatigue and all the problems that come with the first long run of the year. What happened in the last two laps? I stopped!"
Asked about the interesting things seen in these three days of testing, the Italian-Brazilian responded, "Apart from the crashes on the first day, which were bad to see and surprised me in a negative way, everything was in the norm."
Focussing on the aspects in which he can still improve he said, "In the time attack there is still to improve, then you have to try to understand everything about the package again to get to a complete level of knowledge."
Despite still having some work to do, Morbidelli is definitely on the right track. Although he doesn't feel like calling himself more competitive than the level he reached at the end of last season: "It's hard to say, because we just started now. After a year you get to really have the bike in hand, instead now the year has started again after three months away from MotoGP, with a new team, so it's a little different. We are off to a very good start, though."
Everything seems to be going the right way, and Franco could have a big opportunity this early in the season, finding in his hands the bike he dominated in 2024 and has come to know.
"I consider myself a very lucky person, I have been on many occasions in my life and I hope that this will be one of them," he remarked, hoping to take advantage of that period of advantage over the riders with the factory bike, which was not seen last season: "Last year we all expected more from the GP23 and really only Marquez was able to extract the maximum. What we all expected didn't happen. We'll see what happens this year. A little something changes on the GP24 from last year, but nothing special."
After such a start, Morbidelli can only go to Thailand gassed, motivated and calm. "Yes, all those things there. We really started the way you need to start and now you have to build on that kind of base to do a good job in Buriram, in the first races and throughout the season," he commented.
The one in Buriram will also be an important test ahead of the first race of the new year. "Yes, in Buriram we will have to spend some time preparing the bike for the GP. It will be very important to arrive ready and I am sure that with Matteo (Flamigni, his crew chief, ed.) we will do it in the best possible way," underlined the Ducati rider, who is in a very different situation from a year ago.
"If I think about where I was last year, right now I was in a much worse situation, and I can't be more grateful than the people back home who are by my side and who I had by my side all last year, because even the team I was running in last season helped me restart after that bump and make it seem like an almost normal restart," he concluded, "I'm very grateful to the people who were there for me last year and I hope to make them rejoice this year instead of working to recover.
