Morbidelli 'thankful' for 'bittersweet calendar'

Franco Morbidelli is 'thankful' for the revised 2020 MotoGP calendar released last week, but admits it's a bittersweet feeling as an Italian.

"We have a 13 race calendar confirmed, with maybe a total of 16 including Malaysia, for 2020!" said the Petronas Yamaha rider. "Of course, it won’t be a normal calendar season but this is what’s possible at the moment, I think we just have to be thankful.

"We will miss the fans a lot and the normal GP weekend atmosphere, but we understand that this is a provisional situation and soon we will be back to normal life.

"To get there, we need to keep acting safely and responsibly. Dorna and IRTA have been able to organise what seemed impossible, so now we must follow all their advice and avoid any last minute issues.

"It’s a really tight calendar with 13 races in 18 weeks, so no mistakes can be made and it will be really tough with almost no rest. It will also be interesting to see how everyone faces this challenge."

The bittersweet feeling is due to the cancellation of the official Italian round at Mugello, but double-dose at Misano.

"As an Italian, I have a bittersweet calendar because we couldn’t race at Mugello - although I will be able to train there and every year we have to do some laps there as it’s so special for us - but we get to race at Misano twice. We rode there a lot recently with the Yamaha R1 so we have to take advantage of this!" Morbidelli said.

"It’s really important to have a date on the horizon and work towards it, because you don’t know how difficult it is to prepare yourself for a non-confirmed target. I’m looking forward to seeing our team members in Spain and ride my #21 YZR-M1."

Morbidelli will be the only rider on an A-Spec M1 this season with team-mate Fabio Quartararo joining Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi on a factory-spec bike.

Quartararo is confirmed as replacing Rossi for 2021 when The Doctor is tipped to join protegee Morbidelli at the Sepang team, although at present both Petronas seats are officially open.