“I was scared of leaving MotoGP in 2018” - Franco Morbidelli reflects ahead of Misano farewell

Franco Morbidelli will take part in his final home Italian round as a MotoGP rider at Misano this weekend.

Ahead of VR46’s local event, Morbidelli was officially confirmed as leaving Valentino Rossi’s squad, with WorldSBK champion-elect Nicolo Bulega taking over in 2027.

Although not yet official, Morbidelli is expected to effectively swap seats with Bulega by joining the Aruba.it Ducati team in WorldSBK next season.

“Misano is always a special GP, for all the Italian riders,” Morbidelli said on Thursday. “This year is extra special for me because it's going to be my last one in MotoGP, so I hope I can do well this weekend.”

Morbidelli’s MotoGP future has been in major doubt for much of this season, with seventh place in Catalunya his best dry race result.

However, the Italian says he learned to live with uncertainty after a difficult rookie MotoGP campaign in 2018, when the reigning Moto2 champion finished just 15th in the world championship.

“I was scared of leaving MotoGP in 2018,” he said. “When I joined MotoGP, the results were not coming. So when results don't come, and especially when you're in the first year, you get scared. But I learned over the years to put fear aside.”

Morbidelli was subsequently signed by Petronas Yamaha, where he won three grands prix - the first at Misano - on his way to finishing runner-up in the 2020 MotoGP World Championship.

However, his later promotion to the factory Yamaha team in place of Maverick Vinales was followed by a career low of 19th in the 2022 standings.

“My most difficult was 2022, I would say,” he admitted. “And let's see, but maybe this one.”

Returning to his rookie season, Morbidelli added: “I was just very young, and because I was coming in the category as the world champion, and I was expecting a kind of performance.

“Instead, it wasn't coming, because the level in MotoGP is totally different. I was young. I was 23. Now I'm 31. I'm not old, but I'm more experienced.

“What aspect have I changed the most? I became more and more a professional and a dedicated athlete to my sport. When I was 23, it was all a game.”

Asked if that was surprising given he had been the first official member of Valentino Rossi’s VR46 Riders Academy, Morbidelli replied:

“I think that the way the Academy is perceived - and for sure maybe it's also because of the name - is as a school and as a teaching group. It's not at all like that.

“As maybe you can see in some videos, we have fun together, we train together, we enjoy the best sport in the world together. And the way of being of somebody stays quite the same.

“We are not 'homologated'. We are ourselves. So if somebody is more of a playful guy, so he'd be. If someone is more of a serious guy, maybe like it was Pecco, a serious kid, we were kids, so he'd be.”

Morbidelli became the first VR46 Riders Academy member to win a world championship and the first to claim a MotoGP victory.

His move to WorldSBK leaves Pecco Bagnaia, Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini as the remaining VR46 Academy riders in the premier-class.

Jack Miller and Brad Binder are also moving from MotoGP to WorldSBK next season.