Petronas Sepang Yamaha rider Franco Morbidelli believes the pace he showed in MotoGP testing last November proves it will be “possible” for the team to fight the frontrunners in 2019.
Morbidelli joins the new Petronas-backed SRT outfit, which takes the grid slots of the Nieto team, from Marc VDS for his sophomore season, and will campaign aboard a works 'A-spec' 2019 Yamaha.
The 2017 Moto2 champion finished the final test of last year at Jerez sixth overall and second-fastest Yamaha runner, and has set his sights on fighting the “top guys” as much as possible this season.
Speaking at the team's launch event, Morbidelli said: “To fight with the top guys sometimes will be a great thing for us.
“And according to the level we had in testing, it's a possible thing. So we will try to do it, and we will work to our best [ability] to do it as many times as we can.
“But we have to keep in mind that we are a satellite team, so our aim should be to be the top satellite team.
“I think we have everything to do it, so for sure we will try.”
Echoing Morbidelli's comments, team manager Wilco Zeelenberg says SRT's “mission” is to “build up the best and most successful satellite team in MotoGP”.
Morbidelli will be joined by Moto2 graduate Fabio Quartararo, who will contest his debut premier class season aboard last year's M1.
Looking ahead to the first test of the year in Malaysia next week, as well as his aims for 2019 overall, Quartararo wants to take top rookie honours, but admits his main goal is to demonstrate noticeable growth as a rider across the season.
“Well, for sure [for the goal for the Sepang test] will be to adapt to the bike, because it is a long time I don't ride this bike,” the Frenchman, who was an impressive 12th at the end of the Jerez test, said.
“Not [the main] target, but for sure we want to be rookie of the year. This is the target of all the riders who have come from Moto2.
“The results, we need to think race-by-race, and it's more important to see the improvement from the beginning of the season to the end.”
