Ciabatti: "Sometimes you have to make a decision and in this case the decision was Alvaro"
Italian offers more insight on their 2019 signing
Following the announcement on Thursday that Alvaro Bautista will be joining the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship with the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team, conversation has been rife regarding the decision.
Paolo Ciabatti, Ducati’s Sporting Director spoke with Simon Crafar this weekend at the British Grand Prix, explaining their decision. Taking their time choosing the best rider to join Chaz Davies on the all new Panigale V4, they chose the Spaniard after being impressed with his performance in MotoGP™ this season.
“Why choose Alvaro?” begins Ciabatti. “A couple of months ago we started to think and see which riders would be available to ride the new Panigale V4 next year in WorldSBK. We had both our WorldSBK riders in mind, but we also were looking closer at Alvaro’s performance.
“After a difficult start to the season, he has always been fighting for top 10 finishes, which is difficult to do in MotoGP™ nowadays. In the end we decided that he could be the best teammate for Chaz and get good results, as well as have a high level of performance in World Superbike.
However, he comes back round to discussing their 2018 rider, Marco Melandri: “I don’t want to sound disrespectful to Marco, who has done a great job and is still very fast. He has been very professional for the Ducati team, but sometimes you have to make a decision. The decision is always difficult, but in this case we think we made a good choice for WorldSBK for next year with Alvaro.”
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