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Valentino Rossi's prodigy Franco Morbidelli recently talked about the benefits of being part of the famed VR46 group formed by the Italian MotoGP legend. In the later stages of his racing career, Rossi started his own riders academy to help young aspirants in the early stages of their careers.
The VR46 academy has grown in prominence with time as multiple race winners and frontrunners have emerged from it. Franco Morbidelli, the 2020 MotoGP Championship runner-up is the product of that academy and so is the current reigning champion and championship leader Francesco Bagnaia. The VR46 squad took a step further with its own team last season.
Valentino Rossi's team has struck gold this season as well as Marco Bezzechi winning multiple races this season for the squad and snubbing a factory Ducati to continue at VR46. All of the VR46 riders, including Franco Morbidelli, Marco Bezzechi, Francesco Bagnaia, and Luca Marini train together.
Talking about the benefits of training with such elite talent, Morbidelli listed the benefits of having such a high-level unit working together. He was quoted as saying by Crash.net:
“More and more in the MotoGP field, we see that there are training ‘groups’ shaping up. And I think our training group is probably the best due to the level that we have, due to the experience that we have and due to the riders that are in that group.”
He further stated how the Valentino Rossi-built unit truly helps in keeping one grounded.
"For sure, training is a whole different matter compared to racing and of course, we don't train with the MotoGP, we train with different bikes. But knowing each other better [as riders] and knowing the level that everybody has and then seeing what happens on the real [MotoGP] track…For sure training can be one of those things that keeps your feet on the ground if you are flying. Or that can pull you up if you feel yourself drowning,” Morbidelli added.
Valentino Rossi's prodigy on his improved form with Yamaha
After achieving success early in his career with Yamaha, Franco Morbidelli's career took a turn for the worse when he was promoted to the factory team. The change in bike demands meant he was unable to adapt while teammate Fabio Quartararo won the title. The Italian has been let go by the Japanese squad and looks set to find his way into Pramac Ducati alongside Jorge Martin.
Although Morbidelli is leaving Yamaha, he has shown impressive improvement this season. The Italian said about the sudden surge in form:
“Finally, I got in tune with the bike, and finally I understood how to extract potential with the bike. It took a lot of time. It took one whole year. But finally, this year immediately I understood when I jumped on the bike that I could extract more potential and that was good to see. Clearly, it’s not enough, but nothing changed inside the crew. Just, you know, physiological time with the bike.”
Franco Morbidelli was incidentally the last teammate that Valentino Rossi had in his MotoGP career. The young Italian will be hoping he can help turn his career around with a move to Ducati.
