WSBK Superbike Test Estoril: Rinaldi at Ducati, Locatelli at Yamaha, 2021 is already here!

De Corsedimoto.com

The 2021 Superbike season begins with the debut of Michael Rinaldi on the official Panigale. Yamaha and BMW are also on the track.

Superbike is already in 2021. Today in Estoril, some teams are returning to the track with the riders who will participate in the next World Championship. The Panigale intended for Michael Rinaldi is already ready at Ducati (opening photo). Andrea Locatelli, new winner of the Supersport title, will take the measurements of Michael van der Mark's Yamaha YZF-R1. The Dutchman, in turn, will take his first laps on the BMW S1000RR, the version used this season, but with updates to the M, the new German four-cylinder that we will see next year.

For Michael Rinaldi, it's a return 

For Michael Rinaldi, this is not a real debut at Ducati, given that the rider already raced for Aruba.it in 2018, participating in the European rounds of the World Championship. During this season, however, he was the "pupil", that is to say the third driver alongside the incumbents Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri. Next year the situation changes, because Michael Rinaldi will indeed be official, with all the responsibility and pressure that entails. The 25-year-old driver from Rimini now knows the Panigale V4 R very well: he drove it during the 2019 World Championship in the colors of the Barni team (but he had Showa suspension) and in the season just end at Go Eleven. The Piedmontese team, based in Cesena, obtained substantial technical support. Rinaldi drove the “factory” Panigale in its 2019 version, also benefiting from technical support from Ducati staff.

Chaz Davies on foot 

Michael Rinaldi takes the place of Chaz Davies who left the team yesterday after seven years of marriage, winning the last race hands down. Now all the official 2021 Superbike teams are in place, and to stay in the world championship the Welshman would have to accept relegation to a satellite team. In the Ducati orbit, there would be free seats at both Barni and Go Eleven, but it is difficult for Chaz Davies to accept a secondary technical situation, as well as a consequent (euphemism…) reduction in salary. Over the past two years, he is said to have pocketed a total of around 1,2 million euros at Ducati.

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