It was a cold welcome that the placid Franco Morbidelli received when he returned to his Yamaha box. While on one side, we welcomed a bitter battle led for victory by a Fabio Quartararo defeated with all honors, on the other, the faces were sad and the comments acrimonious. The Italian-Brazilian is not coping and although he admits to being relieved to have a contract until 2023, he should still be wary of his solidity in the face of his poor performances. Because the words of his boss Lin Jarvis were harsh and explicit in Jerez…
« Franky was disappointing, I expected better », declared the boss of the Yamaha team, Lynn Jarvis, a few moments after crossing the finish line in Jerez, in the official MotoGP live stream. “ He found a better setup this morning, we changed something on the bike. To be honest, I would have hoped for more ". The message is clear.
Words which of course reached the ears of Franco Morbidelli who reacted a little later: “ I too am disappointed » he said. In Jerez, the Italian-Brazilian only reached the finish line 27,234 seconds later Quarterly. With a racing distance of 25 laps, he lost more than a second per lap on his teammate. In qualifying, the two were also separated by 1,045 seconds. The Frenchman secured second place on the grid, while Morbidely failed with identical equipment in Q1 and did not go beyond sixteenth place.
To drive the point home, we note that in the championship, fabio quartararo leads the ranking with 89 points while Franco Morobilelli only claims 18. The Frenchman was on the podium three times and won one race. The 2020 world vice-champion, with the Petronas Yamaha, has only entered the top 10 once, and in the special circumstances of an Indonesian Grand Prix spent in the rain. A big gap which is also detrimental to the brand in its constructors' championship, and to the team classification.
Franco Morbidelli is in Lin Jarvis' crosshairs
With this intervention of Lynn Jarvis, the VR46 academician knows he is up against the wall: “ we will improve », he promises. “ We had a good pace in the warm-up. It was very acceptable, one of the best ". But the race went differently: “ after only three laps the front tire temperature was much higher than normal, I couldn't push during the whole race “, he reports.
« Then I had a small gap in front of me and the temperatures dropped. I was able to attack and the times were good, but the race was already over It's our fault because we started from sixteenth place. We will work to refine everything and take a new step during testing on Monday, and then we will see at Le Mans. " finished Franco Morbidelli whose serenity is now put to the test.
It will be recalled that, at Yamaha, Andrea Dovizioso is not in a more comfortable situation while Darryn binder is to be cited for the record. Rumor has it that Miguel Oliveira was approached, that Raul fernandez is in the pipeline while Toprak Razgatlioglu awaits its test on the M1. All this hoping that fabio quartararo sign for 2023 and 2024, which is not yet official.
Results of the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez:
Credit ranking: MotoGP.com
