Franco Morbidelli

Franco Morbidelli
Morbidelli at the 2019 Spanish Grand Prix
Nationality	Italian
Born	(1994-12-04) 4 December 1994 (age 27) Rome, Italy
Current team	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP
Bike number	21
Motorcycle racing career statistics MotoGP World Championship Active years 2018– Manufacturers Honda (2018) Yamaha (2019–) Championships 0 2021 championship position 17th (47 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 62 3 6 2 1 370 Moto2 World Championship Active years 2013–2017 Manufacturers Suter (2013) Kalex (2014–2017) Championships 1 (2017) 2017 championship position 1st (308 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 71 8 21 6 13 686

Franco Morbidelli (born 4 December 1994 in Rome) is an Italian motorcycle racer in MotoGP, riding for the factory Yamaha Motor Racing team. He became champion in the 2013 European Superstock 600 Championship, and the 2017 Moto2 World Championship.

Early life[]

Morbidelli was born in Rome to a Brazilian mother, Cristina, and an Italian father, Livio Morbidelli. The elder Morbidelli himself was a former motorcycle racer, finishing runner-up in the 80 cc and 125 cc classes of the Italian national championships. Livio Morbidelli recognized his son's potential from a young age but did not have the resources to support a racing career. Through an old racing companion Graziano Rossi, father of 9-time world champion Valentino Rossi, Livio Morbidelli learned of the motorcycle training hotbed in Tavullia. The family sold their home in Rome and moved to Tavullia to support Franco's race career ambitions. This training with Rossi became the precursor to what is now known as the VR46 Academy for racers, of which Morbidelli later became the first official member.^[1]

Despite the common misconception, he is not related to Giancarlo Morbidelli, manufacturer of the Morbidelli Grand Prix racing bikes, or his son, former Italian F1 driver Gianni Morbidelli.^[2] In January 2013, Morbidelli's father committed suicide.

Career[]

Early career[]

As a teen, Morbidelli was poised to enter the Spanish CEV 125cc championship, one of the main feeder series for a Grand Prix motorcycle career. However a lack of funding prevented him from entering, and he instead found a ride in the European Superstock 600 championship for 2011. Staying in the series for 2012, and 2013, Morbidelli got seat at Team Italia aboard a Kawasaki, for a third season in the class in 2013, ultimately winning the championship with two wins and three 2nd places.^[1]

Moto2 World Championship[]

Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 (2013)[]

As a result of his success in the Superstock championship, Morbidelli earned a place as a wild-card entry rider for Gresini in three rounds of the Moto2 championship.^[1] He did not score any points in the three races, finishing 20th in Misano, 18th in Japan, and 17th in Valencia.

Italtrans Racing Team (2014–2015)[]

Morbidelli joined the Moto2 class full-time in 2014 with the Italtrans Racing Team, and outscored his more experienced teammate and former 125cc Champion Julián Simón, finishing with 75 points compared to Simón's 56.

He stayed with the team in 2015, and got his first podium, a 3rd place finish, at the Indianapolis Grand Prix. He ended the season 10th in the standings, with 90 points.

EG 0,0 Marc VDS (2016–2017)[]

In 2016, he joined the Marc VDS Racing Team, partnering Álex Márquez. After a slow start, he finished the season strongly with five consecutive podium finishes, eight podiums in total (four 2nd places, and four 3rd places), and finished 4th in the standings, with 213 points.

For 2017, he was a favourite for the title and took his first win at the opening race at Qatar accordingly. He won a total of eight races during the season, with another additional four podium finishes, as he won the 2017 Moto2 World Championship with Marc VDS in the Malaysian GP, after his closest championship contender Thomas Lüthi was declared unfit for the Malaysian race, following a crash at qualifying.^[3]

MotoGP World Championship[]

EG 0,0 Marc VDS (2018)[]

Morbidelli moved up the MotoGP class in 2018, still with the Marc VDS team on a Honda bike, the 2017-spec Honda RC213V. He was partnered by his 2017 Moto2 title rival Thomas Lüthi, who failed to score a single point that season, on the same machinery. Morbidelli finished the season in 15th place with 50 points, four points ahead of Hafizh Syahrin on the Tech3 Yamaha, thus winning rookie of the year.

Petronas Yamaha SRT (2019–2021)[]

For 2019, as Marc VDS left the premier class, Morbidelli signed with the newly formed Petronas SRT team on a two-year deal to ride an "A-spec" satellite Yamaha alongside rookie Fabio Quartararo.^[4] With 115 points, he finished 10th in the riders' championship, finishing in the top ten point scoring places regularly.

Just before the delayed start to the 2020 season, Petronas SRT announced that Morbidelli had been signed on a further two-year deal, meaning he would stay with the team.^[5] In this season, Morbidelli was riding a 2019-spec Yamaha, while his team-mate Fabio Quartararo, rode a factory-spec Yamaha. In August 2020, at the Austrian Grand Prix, Morbidelli's motorcycle collided with that of Johann Zarco while the two fought through turn 2. Despite the dramatic crash which resulted in a red flag, Morbidelli was unharmed.^[6] He achieved his first MotoGP podium at the Czech round^[7] and his first victory just three races later, at his home race in Rimini.^[8] He took his second career win at the Teruel Grand Prix, setting a new track race lap record on the way, and solidifying himself as a contender for the riders' championship.^[9] At the following European Grand Prix, Morbidelli struggled in qualifying and then in the race, battling rising tire pressures, ultimately limping home in 11th, while title rival Joan Mir took his first career win, all but extinguishing Morbidelli's title hopes.^[10] At the second Valencia round the following week, Morbidelli bounced back to take his second career pole position and converted it to his third career win, staving off a last lap attack from Jack Miller. Mir finished in 7th place, sufficient to clinch the championship ahead of Morbidelli.^[11] At the final round in Portugal, Morbidelli finished the season with his fifth podium of the season, to end the championship as runner-up to Mir by 13 points.

For 2021, Morbidelli's teammate was the VR46 Academy owner Valentino Rossi. During the first half season, Morbidelli rode the 2020 "A-spec" Yamaha and took his first podium at Jerez, finishing third. After the German Grand Prix, Morbidelli injured his knee in a training accident and was unable to race at Assen when he was substituted by Yamaha World Superbike rider Garrett Gerloff, and the Styrian event in Austria by Yamaha factory tester Cal Crutchlow.^[12][13] Morbidelli's recovery was slow and he was replaced by Jake Dixon who rode Morbidelli's machine for the British Grand Prix race in August, and again at Aragón in September.^[14][15]

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP (2021–present)[]

It was during his rehab, when it was announced that Morbidelli would move up to the factory Yamaha team for the rest of 2021 (starting from Misano), and also through 2022, officially replacing the vacated seat left by Maverick Viñales who left the team early in August, to join Aprilia. Morbidelli’s seat at the satellite Yamaha team was taken over by Andrea Dovizioso, who returned to the sport after a racing break and some test riding with Aprilia. After Morbidelli was deemed healthy enough to race by doctors, he returned to the championship on an unfamiliar bike, after missing five race weekends. This showed in his results, finishing in the points just twice in the season's last five races, ending the year 17th in the standings, with 47 points.

For the 2022 MotoGP World Championship, Morbidelli will be partnering old teammate, and reigning World Champion Fabio Quartararo at the factory Monster Yamaha Motor Racing team.

Career statistics[]

FIM European Superstock 600 Championship[]

By season[]

Season	Class	Motorcycle	Team	Race	Win	Podium	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd
	European Superstock 600	Yamaha YZF-R6		4	0	0	0	0	32	17th
	European Superstock 600	Yamaha YZF-R6	Bike Service Racing Team	8	0	1	1	0	74	6th
			RCGM Team
2013	European Superstock 600	Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R	San Carlo Team Italia	10	2	5	2	1	154	1st
Total				22	2	6	3	1	260

By class[]

Class	Seasons	1st GP	1st Pod	1st Win	Race	Win	Podiums	Pole	FLap	Pts	Chmp
European Superstock 600	2011–2013	2011 Monza	2012 Nürburgring	2013 Portimão	22	2	6	3	1	260	1
Total	2011–2013				22	2	6	3	1	260	1

Races by year[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Pos	Pts
	Yamaha	ASS	MNZ 4	MIS Ret	ARA	BRN	SIL	NÜR	IMO 6	MAG	POR 7	17th	32
	Yamaha	IMO 7	ASS	MNZ 9	MIS 15	ARA	BRN 6	SIL 7	NÜR 3	POR 5	MAG 5	6th	74
2013	Kawasaki	ARA 6	ASS 7	MNZ 6	POR 1	IMO 2	SIL1 4	SIL2 14	NÜR 1	MAG 2	JER 2	1st	154

Grand Prix motorcycle racing[]

By season[]

Season	Class	Motorcycle	Team	Number	Race	Win	Podium	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd	WCh
2013	Moto2	Suter	Federal Oil Gresini Moto2	94	3	0	0	0	0	0	NC	–
2014	Moto2	Kalex	Italtrans Racing Team	21	18	0	0	0	0	75	11th	–
2015	Moto2	Kalex	Italtrans Racing Team	21	14	0	1	0	2	90	10th	–
2016	Moto2	Kalex	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	21	18	0	8	0	3	213	4th	–
2017	Moto2	Kalex	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	21	18	8	12	6	8	308	1st	1
2018	MotoGP	Honda	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	21	16	0	0	0	0	50	15th	–
2019	MotoGP	Yamaha	Petronas Yamaha SRT	21	19	0	0	0	0	115	10th	–
2020	MotoGP	Yamaha	Petronas Yamaha SRT	21	14	3	5	2	1	158	2nd	–
2021	MotoGP	Yamaha	Petronas Yamaha SRT	21	8	0	1	0	0	40	17th	–
			Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP		5	0	0	0	0	7
Total					133	11	27	8	14	1056		1

By class[]

Class	Seasons	1st GP	1st Pod	1st Win	Race	Win	Podiums	Pole	FLap	Pts	WChmp
Moto2	2013–2017	2013 San Marino	2015 Indianapolis	2017 Qatar	71	8	21	6	13	686	1
MotoGP	2018–present	2018 Qatar	2020 Czech Republic	2020 San Marino	62	3	6	2	1	370	0
Total	2013–present				133	11	27	8	14	1056	1

Races by year[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Class	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Pos	Pts
2013	Moto2	Suter	QAT	AME	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GER	IND	CZE	GBR	RSM 20	ARA	MAL	AUS	JPN 18	VAL 17			NC	0
2014	Moto2	Kalex	QAT 25	AME 17	ARG 13	SPA 20	FRA 10	ITA 10	CAT 21	NED 24	GER 6	IND Ret	CZE 8	GBR 6	RSM 7	ARA 5	JPN 7	AUS 13	MAL Ret	VAL 21		11th	75
2015	Moto2	Kalex	QAT 5	AME 5	ARG 5	SPA 6	FRA 5	ITA Ret	CAT 8	NED 19	GER Ret	IND 3	CZE 10	GBR	RSM	ARA	JPN	AUS 11	MAL 15	VAL Ret		10th	90
2016	Moto2	Kalex	QAT 7	ARG 25	AME 14	SPA 4	FRA 4	ITA 8	CAT 11	NED 3	GER Ret	AUT 2	CZE 8	GBR 2	RSM 5	ARA 3	JPN 3	AUS 2	MAL 2	VAL 3		4th	213
2017	Moto2	Kalex	QAT 1	ARG 1	AME 1	SPA Ret	FRA 1	ITA 4	CAT 5	NED 1	GER 1	CZE 8	AUT 1	GBR 3	RSM Ret	ARA 1	JPN 8	AUS 3	MAL 3	VAL 2		1st	308
2018	MotoGP	Honda	QAT 12	ARG 14	AME 21	SPA 9	FRA 13	ITA 15	CAT 14	NED DNS	GER WD	CZE 13	AUT 19	GBR C	RSM 12	ARA 11	THA 14	JPN 11	AUS 8	MAL 12	VAL Ret	15th	50
2019	MotoGP	Yamaha	QAT 11	ARG Ret	AME 5	SPA 7	FRA 7	ITA Ret	CAT Ret	NED 5	GER 9	CZE Ret	AUT 10	GBR 5	RSM 5	ARA Ret	THA 6	JPN 6	AUS 11	MAL 6	VAL Ret	10th	115
2020	MotoGP	Yamaha	SPA 5	ANC Ret	CZE 2	AUT Ret	STY 15	RSM 1	EMI 9	CAT 4	FRA Ret	ARA 6	TER 1	EUR 11	VAL 1	POR 3						2nd	158
2021	MotoGP	Yamaha	QAT 18	DOH 12	POR 4	SPA 3	FRA 16	ITA 16	CAT 9	GER 18	NED	STY	AUT	GBR	ARA	RSM 18	AME 19	EMI 14	ALR 17	VAL 11		17th	47

World Rally Championship results[]

Year	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Pos	Pts
2020	Hyundai i20 R5	MON	SWE	MEX	EST	TUR	ITA	MNZ 61	NC	0

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Franco Morbidelli.

• Franco Morbidelli at eWRC-results.com
• Franco Morbidelli at MotoGP.com
• Franco Morbidelli at WorldSBK.com
• Franco Morbidelli at AS.com (in Spanish)