We’re halfway there in the 2023 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship; six rounds down and six waiting in anger. As is always the case, the rider market for the following year is always active and looking to 2024, that’s no different. However, it’s not just from riders who are on the grid or are looking to move from other paddocks, its riders wanting to return to the sport as a whole.
MORE THAN A RUMOUR: could ‘The Maniac’ cause the craziest jolt in the rider market?
Andrea Iannone has been one of the names banded around the WorldSBK paddock for a few rounds now and was actually seen at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” in May for the Pirelli Emilia-Romagna Round. There, he stated his aim to be on the WorldSBK grid for 2024 and that he enjoyed his experience within the paddock, even if it was as a guest for the time being. Now, after the Prosecco DOC UK Round, Marco Barnabo has said “never say never” on the possibility that ‘The Maniac’ joins up with his Barni Spark Racing Team.
Speaking about the possibility of Andrea Iannone coming to join the WorldSBK paddock and potentially doing so with his team, Marco Barnabo said: “He is a great talent rider and I am sure he could be really good in this Championship. However, now my focus is on the work with Danilo. So, as the project is not well defined and until we start getting the results we set, I don’t know if we’ll be able to do something more of this. Never say never!”
It comes after current rider Danilo Petrucci, in his Saturday afternoon debrief at Donington Park, responded to a question about Iannone being his potential teammate in a two-bike Barni Ducati line-up, as well as his good friendship with his ex-MotoGP™ rival: “He’s already texted me! We were texting just five minutes ago. He said ‘I wish I can be there next year’; it would be fun! It’s not my job this time for sure! Jokes apart, Andrea is a really a good talent. I would like to see him in this Championship. It would be a good step.”
BARNI BACK ON THE BOX: “We never gave up in these five years”
It was an emotional return to the podium for the team, with Marco Barnabo elated at the good turn in fortune for the team in 2023 after a difficult period of time: “The project with Petrucci started a while ago. I tried for several years to bring him back with me after 2011. Clearly, he had great opportunities but we always kept in contact, we trust each other and we’re friends. When this chance emerged, we took it.
“I am very happy; we worked a lot on the bike as it’s very different compared to Bautista’s, and we still have to work to adapt it to Danilo. I’m sure if we can go on like now, we’ll get very good results in 2023 with him. We are very happy about this podium; it has been missed for a long time! I’m very proud of the team, we never gave up in these five years and this podium is a reward for all the sacrifices we did.”
The five years that Marco talks about have been long; Xavi Fores taking second in 2018 during the inaugural Argentinian Round’s Race 2 was the last visit to the podium for the Italian team. Top ten results came with Michael Ruben Rinaldi in 2019 but in 2020, Leon Camier’s star-signing for the team ended in the British rider getting injured in testing at Aragon, never recovering and thus retiring from the racing side of the sport. Marco Melandri was drafted in and achieved a top ten, but later went back to his own retirement, as Matteo Ferrari and Samuele Cavalieri stepped in. For 2021, Tito Rabat’s headline signing for the team ended in disappointment with a handful of top ten finishes, as Samuele Cavalieri once again returned, whilst a year later, Sammarinese rider Luca Bernardi was given an opportunity after an impressive WorldSSP campaign, but later replaced by Xavi Fores for the final three rounds.
PETRUCCI TURNS IT AROUND: after Misano misfortune, Donington Park delight
Already in 2023, Danilo Petrucci has returned the team to some kind of form, regardless of the podium achieved at Donington Park. Two top ten finishes at Phillip Island were a solid start, whilst a top five at Mandalika saw the team back towards the pointy end. Assen was consistent whilst Barcelona was difficult, but it was perhaps Misano where it was all about ‘what could’ve been’ for the team. Crashing out of a podium-contending fourth in Race 1, ‘Petrux’ salvaged a P7 in Race 2 after a crash in the Superpole Race.
The drought was almost ended in Race 1 at Donington Park but Petrucci, back at the track for the first time since 2009, had one clear image from Misano stopping a late, potentially race-costing charge to Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK), who eventually took P3: “I had a clear image in my mind of the team owner, Marco, with his head in his hands from Misano, and I thought, ‘I don’t want to repeat that again!’. So, I was on the limit. Maybe Jonny, when I was able to catch him, made two or three mistakes and I was able to catch him but then, the last two laps, I said, ‘I have nothing more to give.’ I decided, OK, maybe it is better to score some points!”
Donington Park welcomed the 32-year-old double MotoGP™ race winner onto the front row for the first time, before a hat-trick of top five finishes and a first podium in Race 2, with the #9 stating that he’ll “drink a lot of beers” in celebration. It’s the first time the Barni Spark Racing Team have achieved three consecutive top five finishes since Assen and Imola in 2018 with Fores, who achieved four in a row with 5th, 4th, 5th, 4th. With Imola up next for Petrucci and Barnabo’s team, do bigger achievements lies ahead?
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Source: WorldSBK.com