Morbidelli quizzed about Ducati switch after awful results for Japanese bikes

• British MotoGP, Silverstone - Sprint Race Results

Morbidelli will lose his MotoGP ride with Yamaha for the 2024 season, and Ducati have confirmed their interest in bringing him into their unit, likely with the Mooney VR46 team.

In the sprint race at the British MotoGP, his 15th-place finish was shockingly the best result for any Japanese manufactured bike.

Asked afterwards if he was looking forward to riding “a bike that performs” next year, Morbidelli hesitated and chuckled, then said: “This is too much of an easy question! 

“I must focus on the present to do the best job that I can do, right here, right now.”

His teammate Fabio Quartararo qualified last on the entire grid while the Honda bikes also languished behind the dominant Ducatis, plus also the KTMs and Aprilias in Saturday’s sprint.

Morbidelli said about the downfall of the once-dominant Yamaha: “If you analyse what happened last year, in the beginning Quartararo had amazing power and speed, and a very aggressive riding style. He was able to pull away in the championship.

“But in the second half of the season we were already able to see that there a big gap between Europeans and Japanese.

“This year, there was an even bigger step.

“I think about the present - right here, right now - the adversities I faced last season made me a better person, a better athlete.”

He said about his 15th-place finish: “We’ll take it because the competition is tough. It’s not that people are cruising around - apart from Marc at one point!

“We tried to get the maximum from the race. There was the potential to do more. The potential was less than the Ducatis, KTMs or Aprilias.

“I tried to understand how we can improve. That’s what I could do today.

“[Sunday] the race will be in dry conditions, very tough.”

He cited rear grip as his key issue, and also insisted there was no difference with more or less standing water on the track.

“In the morning I was alone, I could express a different riding style and risk more.

“[In the sprint race] many people overtook me in the beginning. I struggled to catch up at the end. But then I recovered positions from Fernandez, Marc, Bastianini and Bagnaia.

“But there was no difference in performance or feeling from the morning to afternoon.”