Franco Morbidelli

As a teen, Morbidelli was poised to enter the Spanish CEV 125cc championship, one of the main feeder series for a Grand Prix motorcycle career. However a lack of funding prevented him from entering. He instead found a ride in the European Superstock 600 championship for 2011 and 2012. In January 2013, Morbidelli's father died of suicide. Morbidelli found a seat at Team Italia aboard a Kawasaki for a third season in the class in 2013, ultimately winning the championship with 2 wins and 5 podiums.[1]

As a result of his success in the Superstock championship, Morbidelli earned a place as a replacement rider for Gresini in 3 rounds of the Moto2 championship.[1]

He joined the Moto2 class full-time in 2014 with the Italtrans Racing Team and outscored his more experienced teammate and former 125cc Champion Julián Simón.

He stayed with the team in 2015 and got his first podium finish at the Indianapolis Grand Prix.

In 2016, he joined the Marc VDS Racing Team, partnering Álex Márquez.

After a slow start, he finished the season strongly with 5 consecutive podium finishes, 8 podiums in total and finished 4th in the standings. For 2017, he was a favourite for the title and took his first win at the opening race at Qatar. He won a total of 8 races with 4 additional podium finishes as he won the 2017 Moto2 World Championship with Marc VDS after his closest championship contender Thomas Lüthi was declared unfit for the Malaysian GP following a crash at qualifying.[3]

Morbidelli moved up the MotoGP class in 2018 still with the Marc VDS team on the Honda bike - a 2017-spec Honda RC213V. He was partnered by his 2017 Moto2 title rival Lüthi. He finished the season in 15th place and as rookie of the year, just ahead of Hafizh Syahrin on the Tech3 Yamaha, while his team-mate Lüthi failed to score a single point that season on the same machinery.

For 2019, as Marc VDS left the premier class, Morbidelli signed with the newly formed Petronas SRT team on a two-year deal to ride an "A-spec" satellite Yamaha alongside rookie Fabio Quartararo.[4] With 115 points, he finished 10th in the riders' championship.

Just before the delayed start to the 2020 season, Petronas SRT announced that Morbidelli had been signed on a further two-year deal, meaning he would stay with the team.[5] In this season, Morbidelli riding a 2019-spec Yamaha, whilst his team-mate, Fabio Quartararo, rode with the factory-spec Yamaha. In August 2020 at the Austrian Grand Prix, Morbidelli's motorcycle collided with that of Johann Zarco while the two fought through turn 2. Despite the dramatic crash which resulted in a red flag, Morbidelli was unharmed.[6] He achieved his first MotoGP podium at the Czech round[7] and his first victory just three races later at San Marino.[8] He took his second career win at the Teruel Grand Prix, setting a new track race lap record on the way and solidifying himself as a contender for the riders' championship.[9] At the following European Grand Prix, Morbidelli struggled in qualifying and then in the race battling rising tire pressures, ultimately limping home in 11th while title rival Joan Mir took his first career win, all but extinguishing Morbidelli's title hopes.[10] At the second Valencia round the following week, Morbidelli bounced back to take his second career pole position and converted it to his third career win, staving off a last lap attack from Jack Miller. Mir finished in 7th place, sufficient to clinch the championship ahead of Morbidelli.[11] At the final round in Portugal, Morbidelli finished the season with his fifth podium of the season to end the championship as runner-up to Mir by 13 points.

For 2021, Morbidelli's team mate was the VR46 Academy owner Valentino Rossi. During the first half season, Morbidelli rode the 2019 "A-spec" Yamaha and took his first podium at Jerez, finishing third. After the German Grand Prix, Morbidelli injured his knee in a training accident and was unable to race at Assen when he was substituted by Yamaha World Superbike rider Garrett Gerloff, and the Styrian event in Austria by Yamaha factory tester Cal Crutchlow.[12][13]

Morbidelli's recovery was slow and he was replaced by Jake Dixon who rode Morbidelli's machine for the British Grand Prix race in August and again at Aragon in September.[14][15]

It was later announced that Morbidelli would move up to the factory Yamaha team for the rest of 2021 starting from Misano and also through 2022, officially replacing the vacated seat left by Maverick Vinalès who left the team early in August. Morbidelli’s seat at SRT was taken over by Andrea Dovizioso who returned to the sport after a racing break and some test riding with Aprilia.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)