By revealing a conquering Morbidelli, the epilogue of the 2020 MotoGP season was not what Yamaha could have imagined at the start of hostilities. In Jerez, in fact, Fabio Quartararo seemed to have taken charge of his destiny and the head of the Yamaha clan. The Frenchman thus confirmed a potential which had been affirmed in 2019 by the domination over his teammate Franco Morbidelli. But the latter was able to bounce back. So much so that Kevin Schwantz announces it as a favorite in 2021…
In 2019, Franco Morbidelli had been struck by the blast effect of the explosion of talent of fabio quartararo. But in 2020, the Italian presents another assessment. He is thus vice-world champion with 158 points while Fabio Quartararo ranks eighth in the general ranking with 127 units.
Despite the fact that fabio quartararo started as a big favorite after his two victories at Jerez, his teammate Franco Morbidelli finally won the match in the fight between teammates. The Italian's good end to the year made him the reference driver for Yamaha and the most stable in a complicated year for the Japanese.
All with an A-Spec version of the M1 which proved to be a better deal than the final generation of the model hatched by the factory. Next year, Franco Morbidelli will have one again Yamaha from last season with some changes. Not so long ago, this was the kind of news that would have annoyed the pilot. Now, this is rather good information when you have a Yamaha .
However, the performance delivered by the former Moto2 World Champion is not considered by observers to be an accident. Like Kevin schwantz who spoke on motogp.com, many think that it is now necessary to register Franco Morbidelli on the favorites list.
Schwantz questions development at Yamaha
« Frankie and I are pretty friendly, we exchange messages » declares the Texan. “ Sa saison n’a pas commencé comme je m’y attendais, mais après quelques courses, j’ai dit “hé, le championnat est toujours très ouvert, vas-y !” et à la fin il l’a perdu pour une poignée de points. Mais je pense que c’est le pilote qui partira avec plus d’atouts la saison prochaine. Il a été le meilleur lors des 6/7 dernières courses, ce qui lui a manqué, c’est le départ du championnat. En fin de compte, il s’agit juste de mettre les deux ensembles : j’espère que les performances de Morbidelli cette année seront les mêmes que celles avec lesquelles nous le verrons commencer 2021 »
Kevin also talks about the motorcycle issue for Morbidely, which will continue next year on the M1 Spec-A, the one he raced with this year. “ C’est drôle que Franco ait dit “non, je préfère avoir la moto que j’ai maintenant plutôt que celle officielle. Mais cela peut avoir du sens. Regardez cette année, avec Rossi et Viñales. Yamaha ne semble pas être en meilleure position : Rossi a un grand crédit chez Yamaha compte tenu de son palmarès, mais il est probablement temps de suivre Viñales. Le problème est que Maverick ne semble pas avoir franchi le pas en avant nécessaire pour être en mesure de diriger le développement. » Une bataille pour l’écoute des ingénieurs d’Iwata qui fait déjà des vagues.
