Franco Morbidelli began his adventure in Pramac with all the difficulties we know about, namely having to miss all the tests due to a head injury sustained in Portimao at the end of January, when he was riding a Panigale.
But there were positive signs precisely in Portimao where Morbidelli, on Sunday, after colliding with Mir and falling, restarted: not because of the final position but because of the pace he maintained and the fastest lap: the 12th among all the riders and the sixth out of eight Ducatis, better than Alex Marquez and Diggia (who have GP23s).
In the meantime, as Morbidelli continues to adapt to Ducati, we are gathered here to talk about another story: that is, that Ramon Forcada, Franco's crew chief in 2020, spoke with Jorge Lorenzo.
Forcada spoke on the new YT channel about the five-time world champion, which is called DURALAVITA, all attached and in Italian. Here, among other things, he spoke about how in 2020 Morbidelli lost a world championship due, so to speak, to the education of the Japanese.
“The difference between Ducati and the Japanese is the mentality of the Italians: if things are not prohibited, they are allowed” explained Forcada. Differently for the Japanese “if things are not forbidden but they advise me not to do them, out of kindness I don't do them”. And this sort of excess of education, for Forcada is like going to war with fewer weapons than your opponents.
The episode recounted by Forcada dates back to Morbidelli's victory in Aragon: “We were 0.01 from the recommended pressure and Michelin said it was perfect”. But there was someone who disagreed: “The Japanese thought that it wasn't elegant because we were at the limit.”
In the following race the situation changed: “Everything is the same, Morbidelli is very motivated, and a Japanese arrives and says that 'now we will apply the pressure so that you can cheat'. Be careful. They increased the pressure, we went higher by 0.15 and he he finished seventh. We lost the World Championship there” concluded Forcada.
