The cards have been dealt in Moto3, as well as in Moto2, in this Grand Prix season which still has a good game to play in MotoGP. On this point, the last meeting in Valencia will be a grand final which will be tackled, on a favorable ballot, by the Honda official Marc Márquez. A protégé of Livio Suppo, the HRC field man who also worked with a certain Casey Stoner. Enough to take a step back from the one who will be closely watched as a debutant in 2018: Franco Morbidelli.
Franco Morbidelli is already Moto2 World Champion. A title acquired in Malaysia by KO since his rival Lüthi was injured during testing at Sepang, following a fall which forced him to withdraw. However, the spearhead of the VR46 Academy of Valentino Rossi deserves his crown: eight victories are already in his bag and this season he has shown great maturity and speed.
Enough to have his passage in MotoGP, at 22 years old. However, will he be considered the new hope of the premier category? As he will be in the Honda clan within the Marc VDS team, Livio Suppo, Racing Consultant, from HRC, comments: “ generally everyone who is fast in MotoGP has shown their speed on every other bike they have raced. But on the other hand, currently in MotoGP you only need to be a few tenths slower to find yourself at the bottom of the standings. ».
« So it's complicated to predict the potential of a newcomer. There are two contrary examples from Moto2: on the one hand Tito Rabat who is experiencing big problems on his bike. And another Johann Zarco who adapted very well. MotoGP is a very complicated category. Some riders with instinctive talent sometimes suffer more at the start on these bikes. But Franco Morbidelli is not just pure talent. He is also very intelligent ».
Furthermore, the Honda can currently be considered one of the most difficult machines for a rider to understand. Finally, on the pure instinct side, Casey Stoner was not bad in the genre with the results that we know... Difficult to make a prediction, in fact... And Morbidely will have as a teammate the one who has been his rival this year, either Tom Luthi. Who will start, too.
