Pramac rider Franco Morbidelli has revealed that he lost his memory for two weeks following his horrific training crash before the start of the 2024 MotoGP season in January.
Morbidelli was preparing for the new campaign on a Ducati V4 Panigale road bike in Portimao when he crashed at Turn 7 on an out lap and hit the tarmac with his head, which left him reportedly unconscious at the track.
The Italian had to be taken to hospital, where the doctors discovered that a clot had developed in his head.
The 29-year-old had previously explained that he didn’t have any recollection of what had happened before and after the crash, which he described as “unclear” but “strange”.
But in a fresh interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica, the three-time MotoGP race winner has revealed that he couldn’t even recognise his family members as he recovered from the injuries sustained to his head in hospital.
“The truth about this accident has never been told to you in its entirety,” he said.
“I lost my memory. For two weeks. I didn’t recognise people who were very close to me, important members of my family. It seemed impossible, and yet.
“I had all the fears in the world. All of them. Fortunately, we saw that memories and lucidity were returning, little by little. Every day, a detail, something more: my brain started to function again as before.”
Franco Morbidelli, Pramac Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Following advice from his doctors, Morbidelli was forced to miss the two pre-season tests of the year in Malaysia and Qatar.
Having switched from Yamaha to Ducati over the winter meant that he arrived at the season opener in Losail without having completed a single lap on the GP24 prototype.
Morbidelli thanked those around him for supporting him in the run-up to the new season, as he made his Ducati debut in Qatar with almost no preparation.
“Two weeks before this meeting, I was still a little ‘gaga’. But my whole team at Pramac and the sporting family that surrounds me have been great,” he assured.
“Getting back on the bike was a very tough challenge: in short, I hadn’t done it for three months, since the last race of 2023, in Valencia.
“For a month, I didn’t train. I was coming off a bad injury, which the only way to overcome is to stay still: you feel good, but the people around you know that’s not true.”
Morbidelli had faced three difficult seasons at Yamaha since he finished runner-up…
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