Back in 2020, when the Coronavirus was still a novelty and Russia was deemed a ‘loveable rogue’, Franco Morbidelli finished 2nd in the MotoGP championship. He did this on a a-spec named, b-spec actual Yamaha that was cast-off from the year before.
At the time the Italian was praised by all. But that soon changed.
This year Franco’s on a full factory spec Yamaha. Sadly the bike’s a bit of a nail – especially in a straight line but even so Morbidelli’s teammate Fabio Quartararararo is 5th in the championship with 44 points. The plucky, odoursome Frenchie has been impressing everyone as he continues to mix it at the front and even landed a podium despite the noticeable speed deficit and his troublesome macaroon addiction.
Things aren’t quite as impressive though on the other factory Yamaha. Morbidelli’s stuck down in 15th place in the championship and looks as likely to trouble the podium as Jack Miller writing his name with his non-dominant foot.
But why? What’s gone wrong? Here’s some answers.
Coming back from injury and lost time
Last season started with Franco being pretty miffed with Yamaha. Despite finishing 2nd in the championship the year before he was still stuck on the a-spec b-rate bike and he felt he deserved better.
A few races in and his bottom lip was dragging on the floor and causing a build-up of loose material in his lower gum. At about the same time Morbidelli injured his knee whilst kneeling before the gold statue of Valentino Rossi at the VR46 Academy Neverland ranch.
The Italian rider claimed his knee was really, really bad and made a funny ‘clicking sound’ so he wouldn’t be able to race for the rest of the season – although he’d be claiming full sick pay. Conveniently though his injury made a miraculous recovery when a full factory bike became available thanks to Maverick Vinales getting the boot for not taking his lithium medication.
But maybe Franco is still injured? Maybe he rushed back to the factory bike not because he finally got the toy he wanted but because he was scared of losing it?
New crew chief
A MotoGP crew chief is the essential vital cog that has to translate all the rider’s shouting, arm waving and kicking stuff around the garage into “Oh he wants a few clicks more rebound” or “let’s try a slightly different steering geometry.”
For 2022 Franco switched his crew chief to Patrick Primmer ditching the experienced Ramon Forcada after just a few months. It’s possible that both Morbidelli and Primmer have yet to fully iron out all the intricate nuances regarding shouting, arm waving and kicking stuff around the garage. So maybe the pairing just need a little more time?
Factory team
Being in a cosy satellite team is a lot less stressful than been in a factory team. Suddenly you’re under constant PR scrutiny meaning you can’t swear or even laugh at fat people.
Morbidelli’s best work was only achieved in the Petronas racing satellite Yamaha team. His move to the factory squad may have hampered his style and forced him to do more pointless interviews and less actual thinking about racing.
Fine when an underdog
That one single season when Morbidelli was actually exceptional was, oddly, the season when he was least expected to be exceptional. The year before his teammate Fabio Quartarararo had mullered him on a slower bike – along with the factory rider Valentino Rossi.
By the end of that season Yamaha were so impressed with the Frenchman (and scared he might ‘do a Frenchie’ and take sides with another team) that they awarded him Morbidelli’s full-spec ride. Meanwhile the demoted Italian was informed that he could only now order from the ‘early-bird’ menu and had to ride the crappy spec Yamaha – that was mainly made up of bits stolen back from Olivier Jacque’s chateaux.
Most thought that poor Franco’s future was bleak with only a hope of getting a token sympathy ride on a VR46 bike. Instead, though, Morbidelli found his feet and won three races and finished the championship in second place easily beating Fabio. It didn’t really make much sense.
Maybe the Italian just doesn’t like the pressure? Maybe he does his best when everyone thinks he’s rubbish? A trait, worth mentioning, not adopted by Kurtis Roberts.
Might not be good enough at the end of the day
2020 when Morbidelli was at his most successful was also the strangest season in MotoGP. Marc Marquez was of course expected to win but instead he fell off in the first race and snapped off his shoulder. That, and an awkward incident flushing a feisty brown trout down the toilet, meant that Marc wouldn’t race again that season.
This was a golden opportunity for all the other riders to finally have a chance at winning the championship. Even Jack Miller declared himself a title favourite – which is like white chocolate declaring it’s still chocolate. The problem with 2020 was no single rider took charge. There were nine different winners. Even Bradley Smith managed a 12th place in Andalusia.
Eventual champion Joan Mir (at least according to Wikipedia) won just one race. The same number as wide-boy Danilo Petrucci also managed…yet he finished the year 12th.
So maybe poor Morbidelli isn’t actually that good and in 2020, when we thought he was, it was actually that all the other riders were just having a bad season.
Crowds scare him
Again back to 2020…and conveniently that was the only season where most of the time there were no spectators thanks to the new RNA virus upstart Covid19. Morbidelli’s known to be a shy individual so is it possible that large crowds all cheering for someone more popular cause his balloon knot to tense up and slow his riding down?
He misses Uccio
Actually even we can’t think of any far-fetched reason why this would ever be the case.