Rinaldi secures factory Ducati WSBK ride for 2021
Aruba.it Ducati have signed Michael Ruben Rinaldi to the factory World Superbike team for 2021.
Replacing Chaz Davies, the 24-year-old Italian will join Scott Redding on the factory Panigale V4R for the 2021 WSBK season.
Rinaldi started racing minimoto when he was 7 years old, winning the Italian championship in 2006. After winning the Italian Sport Production Championship in 2011, he faced his first international experience in the European Superstock 600 championship in 2014 and was runner-up in that series in 2015.
In 2016, Rinaldi rode the Ducati Panigale R of the Aruba.it Racing - Junior Team in the SuperStock 1000 FIM championship, finishing sixth and then winning the European Champion title in 2017. Rinaldi made his WorldSBK debut with Aruba.it Racing - Junior team in 2018, but raced only in the European rounds. For 2019, Rinaldi replaced Xavi Fores at Barni Racing Team and rode his first full WSBK season for a best race finish of fourth at Jerez, along with a handful of other top ten results, finishing 13th overall in the championship.
This year was Rinaldi’s breakout year. Lining up with Team GoEleven on a satellite Ducati Panigale V4R, the Italian started slowly with a 10-9-NC result at the Phillip Island season opener, but scored a string of Top 5 finishes at the following three rounds before achieving his debut WSBK race win at the second weekend of the Aragon double-header in September. Finishing on the podium in all three races, Rinaldi couldn’t replicate those results in the following three rounds, but continued to place inside the top ten and finished this year’s championship in seventh place.
"After an exciting journey in Ducati, joining the official team is an honour for me, as well as confirmation of the quality of the work done over the years,” Rinaldi said.
“My first target will be to repay, through the results, the trust that has been given to me. For an Italian rider, racing with Ducati is an extraordinary feeling, and I am sure that the passion of the Ducati people will give me an extra boost. I would like to thank Stefano Cecconi and the Aruba family who have always believed in me, and Daniele Casolari, Serafino Foti and the whole Feel Racing for supporting me over the years.
“I would like to involve the Ramello family, Denis Sacchetti and all the guys in the Go Eleven team in an ideal embrace. Thanks to them, I was able to make an important quality leap that allowed me to reach this great goal.”
Photo Credit
Photos: Russell Colvin
