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For Franco Morbidelli the Jerez round, the fourth on the season calendar, will be an important milestone. Already in Austin, the Pramac rider saw the first glimmer of light on a GP24 with which he had lapped very little, with a 10th place finish in the sprint, a result that he failed to repeat in Sunday's race. It is however difficult to make predictions, pointless to make comparisons with the past when sitting on the most competitive bike in the lineup, data in hand.
What is certain, then, is that Franco has plenty of potential at his disposal, and his first real tests on the Monday following this weekend could really prove to be the turning point of a season that began uphill. Looming over everything, however, is the shadow of the future at Pramac, if not of Pramac itself: on the one hand the rider's need to prove that he deserves his seat, and on the other the unconfirmed rumors of a possible Pramac switch to Yamaha. Morbidelli slosses over the subject, "I don't know about the market, my job is to give gas."
"We start this Jerez weekend with a hunger to improve ," Franco Morbidelli says, "we want to take steps forward from Austin, both in terms of speed and work in the box. We are improving in all aspects and we want to do it fast, but I would like to do it while keeping my calm style, step by step."
Perhaps it is the weekend with the highest potential in your career.
"I think so, we have a lot of room for improvement but the potential is definitely higher than in the past, it's no secret. At the moment I haven't had much time yet to work on a setup that is completely my own, so I'm using Pecco's basic one. I check his data more than the others because he has the same bike as me, and obviously he's the reference point in Ducati, but there's always to adapt. I have so many options at the moment that his setup is one among many. The only real base we have at the moment is the attitude in the team."
Rumors include the possibility of Pramac switching to Yamaha in the future.
"I don't know in the future what can happen, my job is to give gas on the track and create opportunities to win on the track. About the motorcycle market I am not an expert."
Compared to a few months ago, despite missing testing, there has been a step forward, which is good in terms of motivation.
"We are all excited and surprised, we are hanging on to this initial speed, this encouraging adaptation we are seeing, from there on we have to continue the development. I can't say what percentage I have the bike in hand at the moment, definitely not 100 percent, I don't feel it's fully mine yet."
Talking to your chief technician, Massimo Branchini, it seems that your strong point is braking, while you have difficulty in corner exit.
"It's something that maybe I carry with me from the style I had in Yamaha, certainly braking so hard then I lose out on the exit, I'll have to adapt quickly although in itself it's not an entirely bad thing, today there are so many riders in MotoGP who brake hard. Braking is what can make the difference and allow you to overtake in the race, it's something I worked a lot on in Yamaha, while the Ducati allows you to be more conservative."
Then on Monday there will be your first tests on the GP24.
"Obviously now I'm focused on the race weekend, I'd like to take that step forward that will allow me to stay ahead in qualifying so I can have a good race. But yes, Monday's day will be very, very important because it will be my first real chance to try the GP24 in fully-fledged tests and work on a setup that we like."
