The Yamaha MotoGP team has announced that Franco Morbidelli will not be retained in its line-up at the end of 2023, when his current deal concludes.
The 28-year-old Italian, team-mate to 2021 champion Fabio Quartararo, will thus require a landing spot elsewhere on the premier-class grid should he secure a continuation to a MotoGP stint that has so far yielded three wins.
All of those three wins came in 2020 as part of Yamaha’s satellite squad Petronas. And after Morbidelli was moved up into the works team midway through 2021, following Maverick Vinales’ sudden exit and with Morbidelli himself coming off major knee surgery, his form in Iwata factory colours never reached anywhere near the heights of his 2020.
In his first full season in 2022 he was desperately outmatched and looking well on course to be replaced. However, while the Yamaha M1 took a step back in terms of its competitiveness this year, Morbidelli actually looked a better match for Quartararo, who he currently trails by just seven points in the standings.
But while that resurgence, combined with Morbidelli being out of contract sequence with so much of the MotoGP grid (his 2022-23 deal stood in stark contrast to most factory riders’ 2023-24 agreements), briefly looked set to earn him an extension to his Yamaha stay, the team’s faith never seemed fully rebuilt – and Morbidelli himself increasingly sounded open to exploring other avenues.
“First and foremost, I want to thank Franky for his hard work and dedication ever since he started with the factory team and also long before that when he was a satellite rider for Yamaha,” said Yamaha managing director Lin Jarvis as part of the announcement.
“The Yamaha and Morbidelli partnership led to some great results, including an outstanding vice-champion title in 2020.
“It’s a shame that the last two years didn’t play out the way we both wanted and hoped for. We discussed the possibilities to continue our partnership, but ultimately we decided that 2024 would be a moment to make a change, both for Yamaha and for Franky.
“The team will proceed to fully support Franky in every way we can to close out our time spent together in the best possible way.”
Morbidelli’s likeliest options to stay on the MotoGP grid seem to be in the Ducati camp as a satellite rider, on what is likely to be an older-spec Desmosedici at either Gresini or VR46.
Gresini isn’t expected to retain Fabio Di Giannantonio, creating a vacancy, while VR46 is perhaps a more natural fit – given Morbidelli’s status as a Valentino Rossi protege – but has been aiming to retain its current line-up of Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini.
As for Yamaha, the Morbidelli announcement was swiftly followed by confirmation that LCR Honda rider Alex Rins would be brought into the fold instead.
