VR46 at two speeds
The start of the 2026 season has been at two speeds in the VR46 team. On one side of the garage there is a Fabio Di Giannantonio never so fast and in shape, capable of taking two pole positions out of three, on the podium in Brazil in both the Sprint and the GP and fourth in the world championship standings, first among the Ducati riders ahead of even world champion Marc Marquez. On the other side, however, Franco Morbidelli is sailing sadly: never in the points in the Sprints, author of only one top-10 in the opening race in Thailand and who is penultimate in the Ducati group, with only a one-point lead over Fermin Aldeguer who, however, missed the Buriram round due to injury and who even now is certainly far from 100% physical condition. In three rounds Morbido has collected just 14 points, compared to Di Giannantonio’s 50. Decidedly too little in a season in which the rider market is in turmoil and the seats of the various teams are assigned faster than beach umbrellas in mid-August.
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The arrival of Aldeguer and the Superbike option
Morbidelli’s main problem is represented precisely by Aldeguer, who in 2027 will leave Gresini to wear the colors of the VR46 team. This leaves only one seat still free in the team for next year and Uccio Salucci has already clearly made it understood that he cannot afford to lose a Di Giannantonio in this state of form. But without a guaranteed seat in VR46 the concrete risk is that for Morbidelli the doors of MotoGP will close definitively. Even outside the Ducati panorama, in fact, it seems unlikely that a manufacturer or a satellite team will take on his contract. Thus, at 31 years old, the rider who in 2020 came close to winning the world title when he was still racing with the Petronas team’s Yamaha, risks having to say goodbye to the World Championship.
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The future of #21 at this point could become Superbike, as also suggested by Carlo Pernat in a recent chat with FormulaPassion.it. In this case, Ducati could once again represent a solution, bringing Morbidelli either onto the official Aruba team bike – which could be left free by Nicolò Bulega in the event of a World Championship victory and a move to MotoGP – or into one of the many satellite teams that field Borgo Panigale bikes in the production-based championship. In the meantime, however, there is one last dance in MotoGP to complete, trying to straighten out a year that began with zero joys and many disappointments.
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