Superbike title gives Bautista a factory Ducati seat in MotoGP

Bruno Gomes

April 18, 2019

If Alvaro Bautista wins the World Superbike title, he will be able to get back in MotoGP and with a factory Ducati bike.

11 wins out of 11 races. That’s the fantastic record that Alvaro Bautista has in his maiden season at the World Superbike championship. The superb results granted the Spaniard the recognition from Ducati Corse management and, in a way, from some motorcycle racing fans who thought Bautista wasn’t so special he deserved a place in MotoGP.

It’s obvious that Ducati Corse is really happy with the results Bautista is getting while racing the new Panigale V4 R, but these results might end up giving Ducati bosses a big headache.

According to Italian website GPOne, Bautista’s contract with Ducati when he moved from MotoGP to Superbike at the end of last season includes some clauses. One of those clauses is that Aruba.it Ducati team needs to pay the rider 200.000 euros. Paolo Ciabatti, Ducati sporting manager, said to GPOne that that money will be paid in a 50/50 percentage divided by Ducati and the team sponsor Aruba.it.

But that’s not the best part of the World Superbike deal for Alvaro Bautista!

According to the same source, if the Spaniard wins the World Superbike title, he will be granted a seat at one of the factory Ducati Desmosedici bikes in MotoGP in the 2020 season. That means that Bautista, who shares a manager with Andrea Dovizioso, has an extra incentive to do secure the Superbike title because if he does, he already knows he’s back at the best motorcycle racing championship in the world.

If Alvaro Bautista does get the chance to be back in MotoGP, he will probably join Andrea Dovizioso on the Mission Winnow Ducati team, replacing Danilo Petrucci, a rider Ducati Corse invested in for this season, but rumors say that Ducati bosses aren’t really satisfied with the results Petrucci is showing right now.