After a French Grand Prix where he only managed to get 15th place, Franco Morbidelli has only 19 points in the first seven races of the 2022 MotoGP season.
This situation leads the Italian-Brazilian to evaluate his start to the season, after a particularly difficult Sunday for the fingerboard rider. “It was a difficult race and it was not easy to fight this weekend,” Morbidelli explained after finishing the test.
“I didn’t have the perfect feeling to be up front. That’s why I couldn’t develop a good pace in the middle of the corner and couldn’t do much more than I did.”
During the warm up, Morbidelli showed a better pace, with an 11th place, not far from the lead.
“In the end we were able to get at least one point, which gives us a bit of self-confidence,” said the Yamaha rider optimistically. “We saw some good things on [Sunday] morning, and we had a good pace on used tyres.”
“So with that we see that things are there. We just have to understand how to put the data together correctly.”
Top speed should also be a problem at Mugello with the long straight of the Italian circuit. However, Morbidelli is positive: “I hope for a good weekend. There will be a lot of people there so it will be great to be back.”
When asked if Yamaha should be more aggressive in development, Morbidelli stated that he was “not in a position to ask Yamaha for anything”.
“I can only ask for additional help to set up the bike. And they are already doing it.”
“When I get to the level of Fabio [Quartararo], I can ask for something,” he continued of his teammate, currently the only Yamaha rider who can race the M1 at the top of the table.
The Frenchman leads the MotoGP World Championship after the seven races that have been held in 2022 with 102 points, only four points ahead of his closest rival, Aleix Espargaró.
