The Italian rider finished the two pre-season tests at the top of the rankings and looked back on his first sensations on the Yamaha, which he discovered at that time.
Franco Morbidelli has just completed his very first season in MotoGP and it has not been a smooth ride. Arriving in the Marc VDS team, he learned the category on a Honda which is not the easiest bike to ride for a beginner. If the start of the season was complicated, the Italian finally understood the instructions Grand Prix after Grand Prix, and was able to be consistent to capture the title of best rookie of the year.
In 2019, he will start from almost zero as he changes machine to the Yamaha of the brand new Petronas team. And the least we can say is that the two bikes are completely different, as he observed during the first two pre-season tests in Valencia and Jerez: “The dimensions are completely different. My old bike was quite violent, quite reactive. She wasn't nervous, although on television you could get a bit of that impression, but the correct word is "reactive" because everything that happened happened quickly. »
Conversely, the smoothness of the Yamaha is what surprised him the most. However, it is positive since its way of riding will adapt more easily to this characteristic: “I think I will evolve my riding style so that it is much gentler. I already ride quite smoothly and this bike requires more of that style. When you ride on it, it's like riding on butter. It's a quite pleasant and natural feeling. I won't force anything and I will try to follow the sensations the bike gives me. I feel like it will be more natural. It's much less physical because everything that happens on the machine is much gentler. I think it has to do with its size. »
