Morbidelli fast, ready, making a 'menu of settings'

With only a limited range of new parts on offer for his 2019-based A-Spec Yamaha, MotoGP title runner-up Franco Morbidelli devoted part of his Qatar testing time to creating a 'menu of settings' for the upcoming world championship.

While pleasantly surprised that some new parts were sent his way, Morbidelli revealed he hadn't tried the new Factory-Spec aerodynamics, for example, explaining "I don't think that fairing fits on my bike".

Add in the Covid technical freeze, which rules out any engine changes, and the scope for major new developments for Morbidelli was limited.

But the Petronas Yamaha rider remained competitive, clocking the fourth best time of the test, a fraction behind Official M1 riders Maverick Vinales and Fabio Quartararo, and was equally impressive for average pace.

"I'm really happy about these testing days. We had the chance to do everything we wanted to do," Morbidelli said after Friday's final day was all but lost to wind and sand. "It's a bit of shame that today we didn't have a chance to ride but the conditions were very tricky so we decided to stay in the pit box.

"I'm pretty happy, I feel ready. Of course I could be better but the situation is already good.

"Now we need to see how the weekend is going to be. I'm going to go for the positions that I think can be my target, top spots, because in this test I felt pretty fast and I had a good pace and good speed.

"So I think we can go into the weekend aiming for good positions, then of course the conditions might change and we might end up in a different situation than we have been in the test and last year.

"But at the moment I feel quite ready and quite energised to jump into the race weekend."

In order to try and prepare not only for a change in the Losail track conditions, for example once Moto2 and Moto3 rubber is laid down, but also the following European circuits, Morbidelli and crew chief Ramon Forcada have been building a menu of settings for the season ahead.

"We are trying to not just choose one setting, we are trying to make like a menu of settings and moves that we can do according to the conditions and to the grip levels we are facing," he explained.

"It's important to have a good base, and we have that. But it's also important to know what to do when there is a certain condition on the track. Because if you know it in advance, then you are able to react quicker and be faster during the weekend."

The triple 2020 race winner added: "The grip has been really high during these days, and we are trying to adapt to it. But there are also moments of the day when the grip is not so awesome, and it's not as we expect.

"So we try also to react fast to that, trying new things to improve our feeling, when the grip is high and also when the grip is low. We are not just trying to improve the improve the speed, because I think we are almost there already.

"The speed is there, the problem is that it goes away from time to time because the conditions change, and we need to be ready to make it again as quick as possible, so we are trying different moves and different things to do on the setting that maintain our speed in all conditions."

Morbidelli also confirmed that he is still using a carbon-fibre swingarm, having been one of the first Yamaha riders to switch from the aluminium.

New team-mate Valentino Rossi was eleventh fastest, on the Factory-Spec bike.