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Franco Morbidelli is ready to get back on track and face the last race weekend of the season in Valencia. After the complicated weekend experienced in Portugal, which ended prematurely due to a crash at the start of the GP, the Pertamina Enduro VR46 team rider hopes to regain good sensations on the Spanish track and to put 2025 into the archives with a solid performance.
Before talking about his expectations for this weekend, the Italian-Brazilian rider reassured us about his condition after the crash in Portimao."I'm very well. No injuries. What happened? I tried to overtake in Turn 5 and went wide. After that, three tried to squeeze into the same space I had opened trying to overtake. They touched each other and I, who was the last one on the outside, got a bike in my face and crashed - he recounted - What was I thinking in that corner? I was trying to gain positions, because that was not my place. I had had good feelings and good speed in the Warm-Up, and it seemed that at the last minute we were able to solve the problems with the bike that had affected us. So, I was trying to recover as much as I could as soon as possible. Seeing how it ended, maybe it was too hasty."
With what approach will you tackle this Round?
"Portimao was definitely another fun weekend from a results standpoint and it was quite strange in terms of how it went from a performance standpoint. We'll keep that in mind this weekend as well, and if that lack of feeling comes up again, we'll try to fix it by taking into consideration what we had in Portimao and I would say also in Australia, which was another very strange weekend for us," he said. "What do the two races have in common? The fact that I was in positions like 16th and 17th that I haven't been used to for two years and that I feel don't belong to us."
Focused on the present, Morbidelli doesn't want to think about the bike he will ride next year and the possibility that he might take the GP24 to the track again.
"What bike will I ride? I don't know. I will ride a Ducati," he said, trying to cut a long story short. "I think it doesn't really matter, because the Ducati is a very good bike with a very good package. Two of the three riders with the GP25 have often struggled? If we really want to see how things went, the riders with the GP24 also struggled on many occasions. It doesn't matter whether it's the 24 or the 25: they all struggle on some occasions. Is the GP24 a more balanced bike? I haven't tried the GP25, so I wouldn't know."
When pressed on the subject and the bike he will ride in next Tuesday's test, he added, "I think I will ride the GP25, but if you want to know for sure you will have to go down to the pitlane and have a look. This is the last race and we can talk more openly - I think there has been too much drama this year about the GP24 and GP25. The Ducati one is a very good package that works very well. Whether the bike is a 24, 25, 26, 23 or 21, they all work well since 2020. I am not in a position to say that because I have not tried the 2025 bike, however, I have seen the performance of riders who have tried both and have changed their minds several times about this specification because of some doubts, and if I were to speak honestly I could not tell you for sure that this package is clearly better than the other. I can only say that both packages are great when they are working well and when they are not working at their best they struggle. We have seen both the GP24 and GP25 struggle, and if I have to make a clear analysis, the 2025 bike has struggled much less than the 2024 bike because we have seen Marc Marquez, who was riding a GP25, finish in first or second position pretty much all year. He struggled much less than anyone else, as he only struggled in Indonesia."
Marc did not, however, ride the GP24. Unlike a rider like Francesco Bagnaia, who found himself feeling worse than last year, when he won 11 GPs.
"What really matters is the present and what happened this year. And what happened this year is that the GP25 won the World Championship, won practically every race, struggling only once in Indonesia," Franco reiterated, "As I said, the other riders with the GP25 struggled, just like those with the GP24. Simply put, that's how it went for me."
A clear analysis, however, that does not take into account the "Marc factor" and the ability of the eldest of the Marquez brothers to mask the bike's problems.
"When he rode the Honda in 2021 and 2022 Honda had problems, however, he couldn't mask them. He won at Misano, but I also remember 15th places - concluded the Ducati rider - If there are big problems on the bike, we have also seen Marc Marquez struggle, and he's a rider of a very high level if not above everyone right now. Maybe some problems are there, but ... (not that big). Has elevating performance further made the bike more critical for most riders? It may be. It's an interesting point of view."
