WorldSBK: Tito Rabat headed to Barni Ducati?
Tito Rabat looks to be announced at Barni Ducati in World Superbikes in the coming week.
2014 Moto2 World Champion Tito Rabat is poised to move to the Barni Ducati WorldSBK team with factory support after a disastrous 2020 MotoGP campaign saw him lose his Avintia ride which was signed for 2021 to Luca Marini.
Rabat endured an awful season which saw him finish the year in P22 overall with just 10 points to his name, failing to break the top 10 all season long it was his worst season in the class so far, in 2018 he scored nearly 4x the number of points he scored in 2020 despite only completing 11 races before his Silverstone crash which almost cost him his career.
Rabat was dropped by the Avintia team who sold Tito’s seat to the Sky VR46 team to enable them to run Luca Marini in the squad, leaving Rabat with his only MotoGP option being Aprilia, it is understood he approached Aprilia about riding for them but was turned down by the Italian manufacturer.
Despite his Avintia ride being sold, Ducati themselves confirmed they offered Rabat a factory-supported ride in World Superbikes, but with Rinaldi and Redding in the factory team and Chaz Davies racing for GoEleven, the only option for him is at Barni racing after they too had a tough year.
They ran 4 different riders with Camier leaving the team after one round due to injuries being replaced by Marco Melandri who also left after deciding he hated racing, the team eventually ran their CIV SBK rider Samuele Cavalieri then Matteo Ferrari who was their rider in the CIV SBK championship in the past, finishing as a runner up for them in 2018.
It is understood that the move of Rabat to Barni Ducati is in the late stages of talks with a deal expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
Featured image – www.motogp.com
