Franco Morbidelli's reputation as a problem rider has defined his 2025 MotoGP season, his eighth in the category.
Pending this weekend's Valencia finale, Morbidelli will finish between sixth and eighth in the standings, as either the fourth-, fifth- or sixth-best of the six Ducati riders.
Given he has missed two rounds through injury, a sixth-place championship finish would feel right, but sixth on a Ducati is very difficult to get particularly worked up about, one way or another. Even Pecco Bagnaia, in the middle of a career-worst stretch, will limp home to a top-five this campaign.
Morbidelli's results just can't be the newsmaker. So his transgressions are instead, and he's had no shortage of those in the recent seasons of his MotoGP career - from not paying the requisite attention to rivals on push laps during qualifying sessions to, let's call a spade a spade here, having some of them off.
There's a Russian saying in university circles: first you work for your report card, then your report card works for you. You put in the hard miles in the early years of the major and coast a bit more in the latter, using the leeway you've built with the professors.
The opposite has happened to Morbidelli. But less with Simon Crafar's new stewarding regime, which has been neutral-to-lenient in my book when it comes to penalising Morbidelli, and more so with the general MotoGP-watching public.
I don't have the exact count of times I have seen Morbidelli's face photoshopped onto Osama bin Laden's on social media in the last weeks, but it is not zero. It is zero for the rest of the grid, which by the way is very much not an invitation for that to be corrected.
It's a symptom of the fact the court of public opinion is now pre-judging the VR46 rider. He has been excoriated for the move he'd put on Fabio Quartararo in Malaysia, including by Quartararo himself, even though it looked basically a normal racing deal.
He was assumed by many to be the guilty party when he had to lunge past Miguel Oliveira on a flying lap at Portimao, when really it was Oliveira being investigated for potentially impeding - and he probably should have been penalised.
I felt quite strongly about the assumptions being made about the latter incident, so asked Morbidelli about it - wanting to know if he'd noticed it too and shared in the frustration. A lengthy answer followed.
"People are free to say whatever they want as long as they keep some respect. Sincerely, I didn't see any lack of respect," Morbidelli mused, so we can presume he hasn't seen the photoshops.
"I don't agree with the idea of many people, but I understand them because of the way that my overtakings are shown [on the broadcast] and I understand because of my history.
"OK, it's not just because of the way they show my overtakings, I had made a mistake this year with Maverick [Vinales] in Mugello and I got a penalty for that. So because of that, I understand that I'm under the spotlight from this point of view, and I understand the narrative that whoever cares about this stuff want to put at everybody's disposal.
"OK, I understand it, I accept it and I always try to do the best job that I can without being dangerous for anybody. But I try to gain my position if I need to gain one position. I'm not here to put other people in danger, I'm here to be the best that I can.
"Speaking about today's situation, what happened is that I was doing my lap and Miguel was, I don't know, on an out-lap or something.
"Coming back to his box? OK, even worse because I was doing my lap and he was cruising around. I needed to finish my lap and I saw a gap and I went for that gap. He wasn't pushing anyway, so I finished my lap.
"I didn't make any drama about it, I didn't stop and start to do drama like we have seen many times now - a little bit like football simulations [dives] and calling for attention from the referee - I didn't do any of that. I just kept on going, saw a spot, went for it and finished my lap, no problem.
"I'm sure there's no problem between me and Miguel. He knows, I know, and everyone when we are on track, we all know. But I also understand the narrative that has been given and I understand the point of view, totally. No problem."
It was a very dignified answer that drew a good line under the matter - so it was quite something when less than 24 hours later Morbidelli took himself (and, indirectly, Enea Bastianini) out of the grand prix by getting Turn 5 wrong in a spectacular way.
Whether it was a botched overtaking attempt or just a creative line borne out of the realisation his approach will cause a pile-up otherwise, we don't know yet - Morbidelli did not speak to the media, instead going to hospital for a check-up that thankfully showed no major injuries for his crash.
But neither interpretation of the corner, in which Morbidelli ended up divebombing several riders down the inside, then crashing out against the KTM of Pol Espargaro when he tried to rejoin the race, is particularly kind to the VR46 rider.
"Franco made a mistake in that corner, braked too late. It's not simple, when you are behind, you want to come back very early. He didn't do a good start, when it's like this it's very easy to commit a mistake. Probably he's conscious about his mistake," said Bastianini.
"He entered [the corner], like, way-way-way too aggressive. Like he tried to overtake, I think we were three or four guys there. He was entering too aggressive to be the first lap, in Turn 5 where you go down[hill, off-camber], with the full fuel tank, he realised he couldn't stop the bike, that's why he went in between the riders.
"We were lucky because, I don't know who was in front of me that also picked up the bike. Then he [Morbidelli] generated like a kind of domino effect where everyone goes out [of line].
"He was too optimistic entering, and suddenly it was chaotic, yes."
There's almost an argument Morbidelli should have had a penalty here - though ultimately there was no contact in the initial corner phase, and the contact that did happen with Espargaro is almost a separate matter. Ultimately, Crafar's regime is not one that penalises riders when they already self-penalised by exiting the race.
But while one incident is just that, it fits into a clear pattern of Morbidelli trying in 2025 to make up through aggression what isn't available by raw pace. It has on occasion served him well this year - but when it goes wrong, it goes really wrong.
That he's getting hounded online for it is, as long as he can avoid seeing the worst of it, ultimately a lesser consideration than what it means for his career. The 'problem child' reputation is unmistakable now, also within MotoGP, even if you could argue he's not actually been the definitive worst offender. Fermin Aldeguer, who got away with barging past Jack Miller in the sprint and Brad Binder in the main race in Portugal, also has to be in the conversation.
But Aldeguer has offset his mistakes with a spectacular ceiling of performance. Though he is behind Morbidelli in the standings, he already feels a more potent rider. And that's before you even consider the room to grow, the respective ages of the 20-year-old rookie and the 30-year-old who's been on the grid since 2018.
What is the room to grow for Morbidelli? What is the upside that makes his in-race lapses a fair price to pay? There may be something, for any idea he is fundamentally untalented is of course rubbish - but on current evidence you can't see any MotoGP team but VR46 betting on this upside, and VR46 too will have to move on sooner or later.
