MotoGP Mandalika Test: Morbidelli makes progress, crew chief ‘an animal’

Franky Morbidelli’s progression to full fitness with his Monster Energy Yamaha took a positive step forward in Indonesia.

Having spent the best part of 2021 recovering from knee surgery, Morbidelli’s progression from the 2019 to 2022 YZR-M1, as he replaces Maverick Viñales in the factory team, has been slower than the Italian would have liked. Five days of MotoGP testing at both Sepang and Mandalika Circuits, however, have proved fruitful as Qatar’s opening race of 2022 fast approaches.

“I need to improve still the feeling with the bike,” Morbidelli explained as three days on Lombok Island concluded on Sunday. “I just jumped on the bike in a good condition in Sepang so we started our work with Patrick [Primmer, his new crew chief] in Sepang. We started to build up a base and finally we managed to get a good base here.

“We managed to get better and better during the three days here and we managed also to squeeze the performance and see something interesting. I still need some more feeling with the bike, some knowledge of the bike, it behaves differently compared to the ’19. I still feel that I’m linked more to the 19 than the ‘22 bike so I need to blend a bit better with the ’22.”

As the paddock travelled between Malaysia and Indonesia for preseason testing, social media was awash with images and videos of riders training and running the circuits - especially the new 4.3kms layout. Morbidelli, however, has been cautious with his regime due to his continuing rehabilitation.

“Actually I needed to hold back a little bit with the training for the knee,” he confirmed. “Especially when I’m far from home. For example, between Sepang and here, I was seeing everybody that were going running, everybody was making two laps running or