From a human standpoint, Franco Morbidelli's return to a MotoGP grand prix podium after a four-year absence is a big deal. It would be needlessly contrarian to suggest anything else.
Really, any MotoGP podium is a big deal. Even from a very narrow perspective it is always the culmination of a really hard week, and in a bigger-picture sense it is what comes after all those laps in pre-season testing, all those wins and defeats in the previous categories, all that stuff that we take for granted.
And in Morbidelli's case the 'stuff' is front and centre. Between these two grand prix podiums he'd had a major knee surgery, a major head injury and was discarded by a factory team after his dream move failed badly.
It is lovely that he got to enjoy a Sunday like this one at Termas de Rio Hondo.
"Feels great, big time, yeah," he said when asked about that bigger-picture view of the podium by The Race.
"I had time to forget how nice it was. I had time to think that I wasn't worth it. I had time to think that I wasn't enough. I had time to think about many, many good and bad things altogether.
"I'll tell you next weekend how this feels - because at the moment you're just busy [in the head]. I don't know if it's the prosecco or something else.
"Tonight I will understand better how I'm feeling, and I will tell you next week."
Beyond that, though, MotoGP is a results business. So, results-wise, does Morbidelli's Argentine Grand Prix performance tell employers, current and prospective, anything they didn't already know? Is Morbidelli 'back'?
Yes and no, to all of those.
In one sense, Morbidelli was already 'back' in 2023. His first full season as a factory Yamaha rider the year prior had been unsustainably awful and probably guaranteed Yamaha would be moving on regardless of what it saw in '23, but he was at least back to a MotoGP-level performance.
Alex Rins, who slotted into that line-up afterwards (and has a major fitness question mark of its own, his being the leg when Morbidelli's was the knee), has hardly fared much better as the successor. And Morbidelli's 2024 was obviously heavily compromised by the pre-season injury.
It is hardly a surprise that, with a normal pre-season and machine continuity, Morbidelli is competitive. A Ducati GP24 will do that for every solid MotoGP rider when they have enough experience - and Morbidelli's Termas record is credible enough to where he already entered the weekend as a genuine podium contender.
It hardly came out of nowhere. In fact, the whole thing was shaping up to be a disappointment - with Morbidelli hindered also by feeling unwell - until his incisive grand prix ride, set up by both some very canny early-race manoeuvering and a decision to bolt on the soft rear tyre, for which team boss Uccio Salucci credited crew chief Matteo Flamigni and Ducati's electronics engineer Daniel Borroni.
At the same time, the ride also hinted at a specific area of improvement rather than just general progress. Last year, once he was up to speed on the Ducati Desmosedici, Morbidelli could get himself towards the front in the early laps - he just always struggled to stay there.
It is, thus, a very good sign that he was able to make a softer-tyre strategy work this well.
The other Achilles' heel, qualifying, still needs work. The starting positions are still "not what I would like", Morbidelli himself admitted.
One podium on the greatest MotoGP bike in history doesn't make a rider indispensable, and it's interesting that the whole Pedro Acosta-to-VR46 idea refuses to go away. The contractual machinations it would require feel in the realm of the fantastical, but Valentino Rossi’s team itself has never really shot down the idea that it would quite fancy having Acosta on one of its bikes at some point.
But it's also clear that Morbidelli enjoys tremendous loyalty within the programme. Salucci was all but gloating - in a good way - when talking about his podium to British broadcaster TNT.
"When we signed with him, a lot of people, on Instagram, 'ah, why, blah-blah-blah, Morbidelli's finished, he's finished' - he's not finished, Morbidelli!" Salucci ranted.
"Morbidelli demonstrated today he's not finished. He's one of the best riders in the world. For me this is just the beginning.
"Every race, every practice he's better-better-better, also with the team - because he's stayed just three months with us.
"Franky was with us in the Academy since 2014, but he never raced in our team. I remember when we had a team in Moto2, he already had the contract with Marc VDS. When we wanted Franco in MotoGP, he already had the contract with Yamaha.
"Fortunately last year he was free - he was free because the last three years weren't very good - and I said 'Vale, I want Morbidelli because I trust in him, and for sure Morbidelli will come back on the podium'. And it's come true."
That kind of personal investment from your team boss is worth a lot - and for Morbidelli's career prospects it will always mean more than any individual podium.
