With the MotoGP rider market moving faster than ever, early-season form has never mattered more. Franco Morbidelli, however, has little to show for himself heading into MotoGP’s war-enforced break in April.
Morbidelli’s future in MotoGP was already on shaky grounds after an underwhelming first season at his mentor Valentino Rossi’s team in 2025. And after the opening three flyaway races across Asia and the Americas, Morbidelli is yet to give his VR46 bosses a convincing reason to retain him for MotoGP’s incoming 850cc era.
While his lacklustre results in Thailand and especially Brazil could be put down to Michelin’s stiffer rear carcass, a return to more typical conditions in Austin highlighted that Morbidelli’s problems ran deeper. Second-last and 20th in qualifying, followed by finishes outside the top 12 in both races, left the Italian battling among the Yamahas – on a bike with which Marc Marquez won the 2025 title.
That is not where a Ducati rider should ever be, but Morbidelli’s results are made to look even worse by those of his less experienced team-mate Fabio di Giannantonio. The pressure of potentially losing a MotoGP ride has had the opposite effect on the one-time grand prix winner, who is arguably enjoying the form of his life on the factory-spec GP26. In fact, with Marquez down and beaten due to injury and competitive struggles, di Giannantonio has made a solid case for being the new reference within Ducati’s camp.
How VR46 riders compare after the opening three rounds
Fabio di Giannantonio
Franco Morbidelli
Best qualifying result
1st (2x)
9th
Best sprint result
2nd
13th
Best race result
3rd
8th
Sprint podiums
1
0
GP podiums
1
0
Points
50 (4th)
15 (13th)
The stakes for both VR46 riders are high. Having already made it clear during the pre-season test that it wanted at least one rookie in its 2027 line-up, Rossi’s squad locked in with current Gresini rider Fermin Aldeguer over the Brazilian GP weekend. That leaves just one spot up for grabs for 2027, and both di Giannantonio and Morbidelli are aware that they have to produce something exceptional to secure that slot. Just beating the other one won’t be enough, as the possibility of VR46 dropping both of them remains very real.
So far, di Giannantonio has exceeded every expectation, while Morbidelli’s results have come as a surprise to even his staunchest critics.
Fabio Di Giannantonio has emerged as Ducati’s highest-scoring rider in the early part of the season
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images
It’s important to remember that the contrast between the pair was never so stark in their first season together at VR46. In fact, Morbidelli was actually putting on a decent show on a year-old GP24, and spent a significant portion of the season ahead of di Giannantonio in the standings. Di Giannantonio was arguably still the superior of the two, but he did not decidedly outperform his team-mate until a late-season swing tipped the balance in his favour.
This year, however, the gap has widened dramatically. Di Giannantonio has been outstanding so far, with back-to-back pole positions at Goiania and Austin underlying the progress he has made on one-lap pace. But more importantly, he has taken the fight to – an admittedly out-of-sorts – Marc Marquez, and beaten him on more than one occasion. This improved speed has also come with improved maturity off the track, and it was evident when he was taken out by the Spaniard in the Austin sprint.
In a span of 12 months, di Giannantonio has gone from a rider who occasionally finished on the podium on the grid’s best bike to extracting everything out of the machine at his disposal. In many ways, he has taken over the role previously occupied by Alex Marquez, who has largely been anonymous in 2026.
The extended pause in April will offer Salucci a chance to sit down with Rossi and map out the team’s future. Even if a decision is not made during that period, Morbidelli will need a miracle at the Jerez test
Make no mistake, ‘Diggia’ is still not a finished product. Austin showed he needs to work on improving his race starts if he is to beat KTM’s Pedro Acosta, if not the factory Aprilias, but he is certainly headed on the right path. His current form echoes his late-2023 surge at Gresini in 2023, when he picked up his first podium in Australia and followed it up with a maiden win in Qatar.
For Morbidelli, however, the opening phase of 2026 has been deeply concerning. The 31-year-old has struggled with grip on the GP24, particularly on fresh tyres, leaving him exposed in qualifying and the opening laps of a race. Once the tyre had done a reasonable number of laps, the races started coming Morbidelli’s way. In Goniaia, in particular, he set his fastest lap towards the end of the races, when the tyres should be in their worst shape. While that initially appeared linked to the specific tyre construction, there was no excuse for him at Austin, where he lacked pace throughout the race.
All Morbidelli could say in his defence was that he “struggled every day. Less and less [with each day], but every day.” Indeed, while there was some progress over the course of the weekend, a 14th-place finish is hardly something to brag about, especially when your team-mate finishes a whopping 17 seconds ahead in fourth. Even taking traffic into account, Morbidelli was losing almost a second per lap to di Giannantonio.
After struggling on fresh tyres in early races, Franco Morbidelli is fighting for his future in MotoGP
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images
Of course, it’s important to stress that these results do not reflect Morbidelli’s peak level in MotoGP. While his incredible 2020 campaign with SRT Petronas may seem like a distant memory, he has clearly shown that he is capable of being a decent if erratic midfielder. The only problem is that he is running out of time to showcase his potential.
On the eve of the Thailand Grand Prix, VR46 boss Uccio Salucci revealed that discussions over the team’s 2027 line-up would begin in a month’s time. The extended pause in April will offer Salucci a chance to sit down with Rossi and map out the team’s future. Even if a decision is not made during that period, Morbidelli will need a miracle at the Jerez test to convince VR46 to bet on him next year. As things stand, VR46’s 2027 decision no longer looks like a dilemma, but a mere formality. Di Giannantonio is not just winning approval from his immediate bosses, but proving to Ducati’s leadership that he deserves continued factory support in 2027.
Fabio Di Giannantonio is giving VR46 no reason to look elsewhere in 2027
Photo by: Media VR46
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