The Borgo Panigale marque heads into the new season with a refreshed rider line-up after signing Alvaro Bautista to partner incumbent Michael Ruben RInaldi at its two-bike factory team.
Rinaldi took a double win at Misano last year before adding a third victory at Barcelona later in the campaign, ending the year with 282 points compared to the 501 points scored by teammate Scott Redding.
Bautista is returning to the Italian manufacturer after a two-year stint with Honda that failed to yield a single race win, taking the place vacated by BMW-bound Redding.
Ducati will be hoping to replicate the success it enjoyed with Bautista during the start of their first stint together in 2019, when the Spaniard claimed an unprecedented 11 wins in 11 races – showing that Kawasaki’s reign in WSBK could be halted with the right rider/team combination.
Ducati remained a regular race winner during the two years Bautista spent at Honda, but it was Yamaha that ended Kawasaki’s winning streak…
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