2023-06-16 13:36:56
The pilot market is in full swing. With only two weeks to go before the summer break from the championship, drivers and teams are struggling to speed up their respective conversations to close the gaps that are still pending for 2024and Yamaha is one of the few factories that has not yet defined its official duo.
While Fabio Quartararo has another year on his contract with Iwata’s men, his boxing neighbor, Franco Morbidelli, He is still waiting to find out what plans Yamaha has for him; The Roman rider’s contract expires on December 31, and now that the MotoGP ‘game of chairs’ has started, Franco wants to know once and for all what will happen to him in 2024, a decision that Yamaha will not It will take you to the month of July, in full summer vacation.
This has been confirmed by the team manager of the Monster Energy Yamaha Team, May Meregalli, in statements collected by Motogp.com this weekend in Germany. The Italian manager explained that “During the last year, Franco has worked a lot to adapt to our bike. This year he is doing better than in the past. Normally we start talking just before the summer break, and we still have two races to go. That’s when we decide what to do.”
Questioned about which riders Yamaha has in mind -names like Alonso López or Tony Arbolino are being considered-, Meregalli prefers “don’t talk about it” insisting that “is soon” to talk about it, without hiding that “We have several drivers in mind, and Franco is one of them.”
If you do not continue in Yamaha, one of Morbidelli’s possible destinations will be the Mooney VR46 Team, structure owned by his friend and mentor Valentino Rossi. The Italian team could be forced to transfer Marco Bezzecchi to the PRAMAC team in 2024 if the departure of Johann Zarco is finally confirmed, whose future could lie in the Superbike World Championship on the official Ducati Panigale of the Aruba.it team, currently in the hands of Michael Rinaldi.
If this movement occurs, the Mooney VR46 Team could give one of their bikes to Morbidelli, an idea that is currently on the table despite the fact that the priority of the team led by Pablo Nieto is to maintain the Marini-Bezzecchi duo in 2024 as well. “We are working on it”, said the Spanish expilot at Sachsenring about the future of the team. “It is true that we are very happy with our two drivers, they are both doing a great job this year. Our idea is to keep them both, keep working with them. It would be very important for us to continue like this, because our project started only a couple of years ago, and it’s still early for us”.
Of the three satellite teams that Ducati has in MotoGP, PRAMAC is today the priority of the Italian manufacturer. The team of Martín and Zarco He is the only one who has a Desmosedici GP23 ‘black leg’ in his box, That is why Ducati’s idea is to move Bezzecchi up to PRAMAC in 2024 to give him better material and more opportunities to fight for the championship.
Pablo Nieto has assumed that the Mooney VR46 Team is a structure destined to be a nursery for Ducati riders, so, on this side, he is more than satisfied: “Deep down, the idea of this team is thatwhen a pilot comes, we work with him so that he ends up in the official team. It is our objective, and if we achieve it, it means that we are doing a good job and that our drivers are very fast.”
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Questioned about the possible arrival of Morbidelli as Luca Marini’s teammate, the Mooney VR46 Team skipper believes that “Frankye is a very fast driver, in the past we have seen him do amazing races. Also, he is an Academy driver, and that is important. But, as I told you, our idea is to try to keep our drivers, but it is It is true that we like Franco, I think that with our bike and our team he could do very well, but it is an option. DAt the moment we have to continue working on our idea, but it is true that Franco is in our minds”, concludes a Grandson who does not hide his interest in the Roman pilot.
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