Lorenzo believes that Yamaha does not give the best deal to Morbidelli

Morbidelli continues with the M1 ‘A-spec’ for the 2021 season, which is effectively a slightly improved 2019 Yamaha , with which he managed to be runner-up in the world last season and added three of the seven victories of the Japanese brand.

Yamaha have won all three rounds of 2021 so far with their works riders Maverick Vinales and Fabio Quartararo on the newer M1, with the Frenchman leading the standings by 15 points.

Morbidelli struggled to 18th with a technical problem at the Qatar Grand Prix, and is currently 11th in the drivers’ standings after being 12th and 4th at the Doha and Portugal rounds.

The Italian expressed frustration with his situation within Yamaha after the problems of the Qatar GP, although he later reversed course and qualified his discomfort.

But former factory Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo feels that Morbidelli is not being treated as he should, and that he must focus on “proving Yamaha wrong”.

“Well, my opinion is maybe quite strong, but I think that Yamaha in this case is not treating Franco in the best way because he was second in the world championships last year,” Lorenzo said on his 99 Seconds YouTube show.

“Ducati gives its four riders [the official team and Pramac] practically the same bike and Yamaha is not doing it, precisely with Franco.”

“Now, I think that Franco should demand the same treatment from Yamaha and he is right to threaten in quotes, starting to talk with other manufacturers or whoever wants it.

“But once he puts his helmet on and gets on the bike, he has to concentrate on getting the most out of it and proving Yamaha wrong for not treating him the same way.”

Lorenzo also spoke about the main weaknesses of Viñales as a driver, who was 11th in Portugal and sounded a bit pessimistic afterwards.

“He is young and will come out of this and win races again,” Lorenzo analyzed.

“What is clear is that he has two handicaps that are limiting him a lot. The first is the exits; He has to get better at that, he has to be very serious about trying to improve them because they are limiting him a lot.”

“And then those emotional ups and downs that I think he has, I think he needs to be a lot more consistent because there will always be problems in the end.”

“The Yamaha in some circuits is not going to go well, in others it will be you who do not feel fast on the circuit or with the bike and you cannot go fast”.

“You will have accidents, injuries, moments in which you will be worse physically or emotionally and there you have to be constant, always think positive, try to get as many points as possible without excuses and without saying that everything is a disaster.”