MichaelRinaldi

Multiple race winner Michael Rinaldi returns to WorldSBK in the middle of the 2025 season after a short spell in WorldSSP. The Italian started the campaign in WorldSSP with GMT94-YAMAHA but a mid-season shuffle caused by Tito Rabat's departure from the Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team meant Rinaldi returned to World Superbike, riding a Yamaha R1.

Yamaha (2025-)

Ahead of his home round at Misano, it was announced that Rinaldi would return to WorldSBK for the rest of the season. He links up with the Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team, riding a Yamaha R1 – the first time he’s raced something that isn’t a Ducati in WorldSBK.

WorldSSP (2025)

A new era started for Rinaldi in 2025 as he moved to World Supersport with the newly-introduced Yamaha R9, but it proved to be a tricky first half of the season. A P4 at Phillip Island was his best result in the first five rounds but Rinaldi was soon back in WorldSBK for the final seven rounds of the campaign.

Ducati (2018-2024)

Rinaldi started his WorldSBK career in 2018 with the Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team, after some standout performances in STK600 and STK1000, claiming the title in the latter. 14^th in the standings in his first season was followed by 13^th the year after, after the Italian moved to the Barni Racing Team for 2019. However, it would be 2020 where Rinaldi’s potential was unleashed. Three rostrums for Team GoEleven, including a race win at the Teruel Round, highlighted what he was able to do on the Panigale V4 R and secured him a spot with the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati factory team. He took three wins and seven rostrums in his first campaign with the team, finishing fifth, before improving to fourth in 2022 – despite fewer podiums and no wins. He returned to the top step in 2023 at Aragon, but was unable to keep his seat with the factory team. He stayed with Ducati machinery with the Motocorsa Racing outfit but a difficult year for both team and rider, and Rinaldi made the switch to WorldSSP for 2025 with GMT94-YAMAHA.