Petronas Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli experienced the same grip problems as Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales suffered in 2018 and has made it the focus for improvements for the upcoming MotoGP season.
The Italian showed good pace in both the winter tests but said that when the tyre drops, the difference in grip is very noticeable.
“We have good speed on new tyres, but we need to improve the pace. We struggle on used tyres, that is no secret. When you put on a new tyre you have a lot of grip and then you have an initial drop sooner or later. Usually the harder the tyre is, the later the initial drop,” said Morbidelli
“But when this initial drop happens, we struggle more than the others. I need more grip. I don’t have any idea. I tried to give my feedback to the Yamaha guys and just let them do their job and I hope they will work in a good direction.”