Franco Morbidelli: “We should use this moment” before GP25 gap grows

Franco Morbidelli acknowledges that the window of opportunity for Ducati’s satellite MotoGP riders might not last long and is determined to strike while the gap to the factory bikes is still small.

Gresini’s Alex Marquez has grabbed much of the limelight but Morbidelli has also been a standout performer on the year-old GP24, leading 15 laps of the Qatar Grand Prix on his way to a double podium at Lusail.

Morbidelli returned to Europe holding fourth in the world championship, splitting the factory-spec GP25s of Francesco Bagnaia and his VR46 team-mate Fabio di Giannantonio.

But with factory riders set to receive upgrades as the season progresses, the GP24 may soon be outpaced.

“Definitely... We should exploit the very little gap that there is at the moment between our bike and the factory bikes,” Morbidelli said in Qatar. “There is a very little gap [so] we should use this moment of the year to make better performances.”

The next development milestone is the Jerez test, directly after this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, where factories will roll out a range of upgrades.

If those upgrades prove successful, the GP25s could start to creep away from the GP24s from the following Le Mans round.

Either way, it will be a major surprise if the GP25 riders - Marc Marquez, Bagnaia and di Giannantonio - don’t become stronger.

For Morbidelli and the other satellite Ducati riders, that means maximising results now, while parity still exists.

Morbidelli finished fourth in last year’s damp Jerez Sprint as a Pramac GP24 rider, before crashing out of the grand prix.

“I’m looking forward to going to Jerez following the great weekend in Qatar with two third places,” Morbidelli said.

“Last year, it was one of the first weekends I started to be quick on the bike. I was very close to the podium in the Sprint and, even if in the main race I ended up on the ground, I was catching really fast.”

The Italian, who took his final Yamaha podium at Jerez in 2021, is now chasing his first back-to-back Grand Prix podiums since 2020.

“We showed a good rhythm so far, and we have to keep going like this,” he said.