Franco Morbidelli will make his second season in the premier class. He will now ride a satellite Yamaha bike in the 2019 MotoGP seasion, as his mentor Valentino Rossi at the VR46 Academy.
The Italian rider is keen to beat the Doctor. Last year, while riding a Honda for the Marc VDS team, Morbidelli finished twice before Rossi, Argentina and Malaysia.
Morbidelli, the 2017 Moto2 champion and last year’s top MotoGP rookie with the Marc VDS team, has joined the newly-formed Petronas SRT team for this season.
“It is much more help for me than him [Rossi], but we can share information, we can share impressions, and it is useful for me and for him.
“Of course it is a motivation as well to ride the same bike and to try to make a perfect job, try to beat him and everyone else on track. It is our aim and it is what we are trying to do.” Morbidelli added.
Morbidelli also expressed his pleasure at having joined the Petronas Yamaha team because he feels like part of a big company. However, he praised the M1 bike for being user-friendly.
“With the Yamaha you always have the feeling of having a margin. Even when you put on a new tyre you think you could have squeezed a little more [from the bike].” Morbidelli said.
“The point I want to get to is to put on the new tyre and know that I’ve given everything. It’s a very sweet bike, and when you put on new rubber and you feel the grip, it’s incredible how good it feels.” he added.
Rossi on the other hand, he believes his protege Morbidelli will be a big problem for him in this season on a factory-supported satellite Yamaha.
“He was impressive on his Yamaha debut, because he was immediately very strong. So he will be a problem. Franco likes the Yamaha a lot, because it’s a very generous bike that gives you good feedback. It’s a bike that is the friend of the rider, but we lack some grip and he also has the same thing.” Rossi said.
Franco Morbidelli and his M1 bike will compete in 2019 MotoGP seasion.
The next pre-season test will be in Sepang, during the inter-season test which will take place there from February 6 to 8. Morbidelli will want to confirm his good performance made during the test of Jerez, last November, where he had climbed into the top-10.
