Franco Morbidelli being fastest Yamaha rider on the opening day of the 2022 MotoGP season in Qatar was even more significant than it might’ve seemed.
It’s not just Marc Marquez who’s spent the winter in a major fitness battle with long-term career implications. Morbidelli, the 2020 championship runner-up, is finally back to full fitness for the first time in almost a year just in time to kick off the new season.
It’s been a long road back to that position for Morbidelli after he severely aggravated a lingering knee injury early last year.
The problem was first picked up all the way back in 2015 when he broke his leg, but he was able to manage the niggling complaint until sustaining further damage while training at mentor Valentino Rossi’s flat track ranch while preparing for last season.
Weakening the joint to the point where he dramatically fell in pitlane while attempting a practice flag to flag bike swap, it became severe to the point of requiring surgery – something that he underwent just after the Dutch TT last June.
The operation was initially expected to sideline Morbidelli for the best part of a year. And though he was back racing in under three months, this time in factory colours following the departure of Maverick Vinales) for the final part of the 2021 season, it’s taken until just before the start of this year to finally find the physical form he needs to be competitive.
While still not fully fit at last month’s final pre-season test in Indonesia, he admitted at the time that he was close, and hoped at that point that he’d be ready in time for Qatar – a situation that now seems to be the reality given his strong opening day performance.
“I would say that the physical condition is 100%,” said Morbidelli after going fifth fastest on Friday.
“After Mandalika I was missing something, some cardio, but when I came back home I was able to grind on that and to recover.
“The knee healed up that last bit that allowed me to not feel it while riding. I would say that to be a rider, to be an athlete, it is 100%.
“We started well, and I immediately felt the health improvements that I was expecting. I’m feeling fine, and also with the package we’re feeling like Mandalika.
“We started from where we left off there, and that’s really good. There is room to improve in some areas, but we can start well and that’s important.”
While Morbidelli’s recovery might have been a tough challenge at the time, he believes it’s meant he’s not just back to health but that he’s actually taken the positives from the experience to emerge a better and more professional athlete.
“I think I will bring it with me forever,” he said of the injury, “just in the way that it affected me. How much it affected me and the way that it changed my thoughts on how important your physical condition and your body is.
“I will bring that with me forever, but on track I hope that I won’t feel it.
“I think it has improved me as a professional. I gave much more value to my body quality, to my body situation, and for sure the fact that it made me work so hard to catch up is something I’ll bring forever.
“For sure we will have to see it on track, but I feel way more fit than last year, way better physically, and this will be reflected in my single lap and in the whole 105km of the race for sure.
“I’m quite confident on that, that I won’t be so turtle in the race.”
His physical recovery isn’t the only thing that he has to celebrate at Losail. Now sounding very much like the rider who won three races in 2020 on a satellite bike, Morbidelli was quick to point out when quizzed by The Race that while everyone else might have been surprised to see him and not world champion team-mate Fabio Quartararo as top Yamaha, Morbidelli himself wasn’t surprised at all!
Part of that confidence comes from a valuable improvement to Yamaha’s race package.
While Quartararo might not be happy with the improvements in top speed brought by Yamaha – a key factor that he spent most of the winter urging the factory to improve – Morbidellli says that he has definitely noticed something different.
“I am really happy about the top speed, because I’ve always been last,” he said.
“I think in every year I did in MotoGP I was last in top speed. We never had any luck with the top speed, but now I’m halfway through the pack, which I’m really happy about.
“For sure we’re missing something compared to the top guys, but I have to be happy personally.”
