Morbidelli: "Cleaning the track shouldn't be our thing, it's dangerous"

February 11, 2022

Mandalika.- Race Direction stopped the first pre-season test in Indonesia for a few hours after the drivers verified that the rain that night had filled the asphalt with mud and dirt. After a meeting of the Safety Commission, the Race Direction asked the pilots, which was mandatory, to give 20 laps each to the track in a specific period of time, in order to clean it and make it safer.

Not everyone agreed, Marc Márquez was one of those who agreed with the decision of those responsible for MotoGP, other riders, such as Aleix Espargaró , assured that they had not gone to Mandalika “to clean the track”, a position in which they also agreed. Franco Morbidelli lined up, but with nuances and in a reasoned way.

“The riders shouldn’t have to clean the track. It’s dangerous riding on dirt with a MotoGP bike. It’s very dangerous, and nobody wants to go out on the track,” said the Italian Yamaha rider.

“The Ducati is a motorcycle that has a lot of grip and a lot of downforce. Today it has been possible to verify. If you read carefully what the different bikes have done on the track, you will realize that the Ducati riders were the ones who rode with the dirty track. And that’s because, with their bikes, they felt safe enough to ride in those conditions, and clean the track”, was the Roman’s argument.

“At the same time, for other riders, the feeling was not the same. Luckily, some Ducati riders and some KTM riders came out, because, from my point of view, their bikes are the ones with the most mechanical grip. They did very well, because it is a job that did not correspond to them. Little by little, the rest of us were able to leave,” he added.

Morbidelli, still recovering from knee surgery that kept him out for half a season last season, finished 12th on the time sheet after completing 75 laps.

“I feel better than in Sepang,” he said, referring to his injured knee.

“Despite the quick changes of direction on this circuit, which worried me a bit, I felt good. We’ll see how things develop, but I was able to do 75 laps and I didn’t take any painkillers, something I did have to do in Sepang” , referring to the two test days held there last weekend.

Franco Morbidelli, Yamaha Factory Racing