A familiar face to the FIM Supersport World Championship grid will line up with a new team for the first time in four years as Raffaele De Rosa swaps MV Agusta Reparto Corse for ORELAC Racing VerdNatura, with the WorldSBK outfit expanding their operation to now include a team in the WorldSSP class.

De Rosa has taken 12 podiums in WorldSSP during his career including four in the 2020 season as he showed strong pace throughout the year. 11 of De Rosa’s 12 podiums have come when riding the MV Agusta machine while his first podium, in 2014, came while riding Honda machinery. The Italian has finished sixth in the Championship in the last three seasons and will be looking to take that to the next level as he searches for his first WorldSSP title.

The Italian will compete on a Kawasaki machine for the 2021 season with ORELAC Racing VerdNatura and will ride for the first time with the team during a winter test at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto. 2021 will be De Rosa’s seventh season in WorldSSP although he has spent time in WorldSBK.

De Rosa, who has also competed in two WorldSBK seasons and STK1000, where he won the Championship, said: “I am very happy to be part of this project. I see that Nacho is a person who values ​​me and believes in me, and that is a great motivation. This project is very interesting, and I think we will take a big step forward together. I'm really very happy, I know the Calero family and they have all my respect. I am very happy to be part of this family.”

Nacho Calero, who will run the WorldSSP team, added: “This year 2021 is like starting from scratch. The whole weight of the team is on my shoulders and we wanted to start strong and high. That is why we decided to bet on Raffaele, a rider with great experience on the track and who, as can be seen in his results, It is capable of giving us great results, as well as giving us a lot of serenity, effort and work. Together we will be able to get where we propose, because we want to take our team to the positions it deserves, we have been working hard for many years and it is time to start collecting all that we have been sowing, so we trust that he can do it better than anyone.”

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