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Franco Morbidelli

Franco Morbidelli Confirmed At Pramac Ducati

By David Emmett | Mon, 18/09/2023 - 22:02

Franco Morbidelli is to race for the Pramac Ducati squad in 2024. The news had been widely anticipated, despite denials by Morbidelli at Misano, but news of Morbidelli signing for Pramac had been circulating since the summer break.

The news will come as a boost for the Italian. Morbidelli has struggled for the past two years, since Yamaha changed the design of the M1, and he has gone through some pretty dark periods, both in mood and form. Getting on what is almost certain to be the best bike on the grid give him a chance to find his form again.

Morbidelli's signing is something of a double-edged sword for Pramac, despite the glowing words of praise in the press release. Pramac have long wanted another Italian rider in the team, to help with their sponsors. But the team were believed to be wary of signing someone from the VR46 Riders Academy, as such a rider would come with a certain amount of baggage.

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2023 Misano MotoGP Test Notes - What The Five Factories Were Working On At Misano

By David Emmett | Mon, 11/09/2023 - 21:37

With just two days of testing during the MotoGP season, track time outside of race weekends is like gold dust. Just over halfway through the season, teams and riders find themselves with a lot of questions needing urgent answers. Factory engineers have their own agendas, with prototypes and new ideas to collect data on in preparation for the first post-season test at Valencia, to give themselves enough time to get bikes and engines ready for 2024.

Michelin, too, have things they want testing. New compounds for 2024, and very early work on the 2025 front tire which is meant to solve the current woes with tire pressure caused by ride-height devices and aero. That tire is reserved for test riders, however. The MotoGP regulars won't get their hands on it until Valencia or Sepang at the earliest.

So there was an awful lot to test on Monday at Misano. A new engine, chassis and aero for Yamaha, a new bike (sans engine) for Honda, carbon-fiber frames for KTM and Aprilia, and experiments with suspension and setup and bike geometry to work through.

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Barcelona MotoGP Subscriber Notes, Part 2: Tire Pressures, The Misano Test, And The Future Of Marc Marquez

By David Emmett | Wed, 06/09/2023 - 16:23

There was a lot to chew over at the Barcelona round of MotoGP, and Misano is nearly upon us. So here's a few more things that we learned in Barcelona that matter: Maverick Viñales becoming the first rider to break the new tire pressure regulations; Honda's continuing problems; Fabio Quartararo going back to the future; and what the Misano test might bring, and what it definitely won't bring, and what that might mean for the future of Marc Marquez.

There were a number of records broken at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, including the first ever Aprilia 1-2 in MotoGP. But there was also a less commendable record set: Maverick Viñales because the first MotoGP rider to be punished under the new tire pressure regulations. The factory Aprilia rider was found to have completed less than 50% of the race with this front tire pressure above the minimum set by Michelin, nominally 1.88 bar. As it was his first transgression, he received a formal warning. The next time he is found to have broken the tire pressure rules, he will be handed a 3-second penalty.

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Austria Kicks MotoGP Silly Season Up A Gear - LCR Honda Confirm Zarco, But Who Takes Gresini And Pramac Seats?

By David Emmett | Tue, 22/08/2023 - 14:23

At the start of the 2023 MotoGP season, we hadn't really expected very much movement. But the summer break has kicked the MotoGP rider market into action, with both real rider movement and wild speculation running rife. In the run up to Silverstone, Yamaha announced that they would not be renewing with Franco Morbidelli and would be signing Alex Rins to take his place. For some of the background to that story, see this interview with Yamaha boss Lin Jarvis.

Zarco to LCR

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Austria MotoGP Sunday Subscriber Notes: Why The Racing Was Processional, And Why The Championship Is Nearly Done

By David Emmett | Sun, 20/08/2023 - 22:53

Sometimes after a race, I feel like there is a lot to write about. This is not one of those days, because it was not one of those races. In previous years, the Red Bull Ring has always delivered when it came to racing. But with conditions as close to perfect as possible – the only complaint you could have is that it was perhaps a little too hot – the weather wildcard was taken from the pack, and the race turned into a measure of rider and machine. And as it's the Red Bull Ring, where the key to speed is braking and acceleration, mostly machine.

So the race we got is a pretty fair reflection of the current state of MotoGP. The strongest rider/bike/team package dominated. The second strongest rider-bike package finished second. And the best of the satellite riders headed up a gaggle of last year's Ducatis. The Aprilias, who should have done better, got bogged down at the start, the launch off the line still very much the RS-GP's kryptonite. And the Japanese bikes spent their race battling to get into the top ten.

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Austria MotoGP Preview: The Endless Drama Of The Red Bull Ring

By David Emmett | Thu, 17/08/2023 - 13:35

I am not a fan of the Red Bull Ring at Spielberg. It is an overly simplistic circuit – a bunch of straights with an omega in the middle to prevent it from being a basic trapezoid layout, stuck up against a hillside. Because it is basically three long straights and an extended left hander, speeds reached are high, and there is very little runoff. Add in a couple of blind crests where riders have a tendency to crash – the exit of Turn 1, the exit of Turn 3 – and you have a recipe for disaster.

That recipe came terrifyingly close to completion at Turn 3 in 2020. Johann Zarco clipped the front wheel of Franco Morbidelli's Yamaha on the way up the hill toward Turn 3. The bikes were traveling at such a speed that both Zarco's Ducati and Morbidelli's M1 shot across the track at Turn 3, Morbidelli's bike passing in between the Yamahas of Maverick Viñales and Valentino Rossi, Zarco's Ducati flying just over the head of Maverick Viñales.

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Lin Jarvis Interview, Part 1: Why Yamaha Swapped Morbidelli For Rins, And How The Japanese Factories Fell Behind

By David Emmett | Tue, 15/08/2023 - 21:42

It has been a turbulent time for the Japanese manufacturers. Yamaha and Honda have dominated MotoGP for years, but now they find themselves struggling to score points, far removed from their former competitive selves. Monster Energy Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo went from winning the MotoGP crown in 2021, to finishing runner up to Pecco Bagnaia last year, to languishing down in eleventh place in the championship, 149 points behind the leader Bagnaia.

At least Yamaha are in better shape than Honda. The 2023 Yamaha M1 is not a bad bike, it is just slow, with aggressive power delivery. Quartararo managed a podium in Austin, and another in the sprint race in Assen, showing that in the right conditions, the bike still has a chance to be competitive.

That is not going to be enough to allow Quartararo to compete for a championship over a full season, however. To achieve that, much bigger changes are needed, both in terms of engineering and the entire development process.

The person charged with overseeing the European side of that process is Yamaha Motor Racing's Managing Director Lin Jarvis. He is the counterpart to Takahiro Sumi, who leads Yamaha's Motorsports Development Division, and Kazutoshi Seki, who is MotoGP Group Leader and the YZR-M1 Project Leader. Improving the synergy between the European and Japanese parts of Yamaha's MotoGP project is going to be key to making progress.

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Whither Japan? How Honda And Yamaha Turned Silverstone Into A Test, And What That Means For The Future

By David Emmett | Fri, 11/08/2023 - 21:07

I hardly need remind you at this juncture just how bad things are for the Japanese MotoGP manufacturers at the moment. Honda is fourth in the manufacturers standings, just ahead of Yamaha, while both are nearly 70 points behind Aprilia, the factory in third, and 230 points behind leader Ducati.

Repsol Honda is dead last in the team standings, Monster Energy Yamaha at least ahead of most of the satellite teams. Best rider on a Japanese bike is Fabio Quartararo in eleventh, just ahead of Franco Morbidelli in twelfth. Takaaki Nakagami is best Honda rider, way down in seventeenth.

Six time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez has just 15 points, one ahead of Raul Fernandez, universally seen as a disappointment in his second year in MotoGP, and two points ahead of KTM test rider Dani Pedrosa, who scored all his points in just one round at Jerez.

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Cormac Shoots Silverstone: Dark Skies, But The Racing Shines Through

By David Emmett | Wed, 09/08/2023 - 21:13


Look to the skies. That was the story of Silverstone in 2023. The weather didn't stop the racing, but we spent a lot of time watching rain radar images

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The Dominoes Start To Fall: Yamaha Announce Morbidelli To Leave, Rins To Take His Place In Monster Energy Yamaha For 2024

By David Emmett | Wed, 02/08/2023 - 10:14

As predicted earlier this week, Silverstone has seen the first movement in the rider market for MotoGP for 2024. On Wednesday before the British Grand Prix, Yamaha have announced they are parting ways with Franco Morbidelli at the end of 2023 and signing Alex Rins for the 2024 season.

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