Defending World Champion and 2023 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship leader Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) will take part in the Malaysian Grand Prix in MotoGP™ as a wildcard with the Aruba.it Racing Team. The round, set to take place from the 10th – 12th November, comes two weeks after the close of the 2023 WorldSBK season and is the third-to-last Grand Prix of the MotoGP™ year.
DUCATI’S SUCCESS IN BOTH CLASSES: Bautista set to sparkle?
Bautista is enjoying a stunning title defence is WorldSBK this season; 18 wins – a new record for wins in a single season – 21 podiums from 24 races, three pole positions and 74-point advantage in the Championship standings, the #1 really is in the best form of his career. Ducati’s success is also being mirrored in MotoGP™; coming into the year as reigning World Champions with Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia, who is also donning the #1, Ducati have won seven out of nine GPs in 2023, along with seven of the new format Sprints.
A 1-2-3 in the current standings and with six out of the eight Ducati bikes inside the top ten, Bautista is undoubtedly stepping onto a competitive package. The Spaniard, who gets an early birthday treat as a wildcard one week before he turns 39, has enjoyed two tests on the GP23 machine and was impressive with his times, despite not setting a time attack run. For the second test, Bautista was key to testing 2024 parts for the Italian manufacturer.
IN HIS OWN WORDS: Bautista returns to MotoGP™
Speaking about heading back to the MotoGP™ paddock to race for the first time since 2018, the multiple Grand Prix winner and MotoGP™ podium finisher said: “I’m really happy to be able to race in MotoGP™ as a wildcard at Sepang, a track that I really like and that I’m happy to be back at since it’s not on the WorldSBK calendar. The tests with the Ducati Desmosedici GP gave positive feedback: the feeling was good, and I had fun. I want to sincerely thank Ducati and Aruba.it because, without them, it would have been impossible to have this opportunity.
“At the same time, I would like to say that this MotoGP™ race will be a bonus for me and not a priority. That’s why we must stay focused on the WorldSBK Championship, which is the only thing that matters now. I want to stay focused for this last part of the season, which will be very demanding, with many races in a short time. The feeling with the Panigale V4R machine is good, and I hope to continue on this path. Then, when the season ends, we’ll think about going to Malaysia and having fun. Now I’ll have a little holiday, and then we’ll be back at Magny-Cours.”
Bautista’s time in the Grand Prix paddock saw him pick up the 2006 125cc World Championship, before being a title contender in the 250cc class. For 2010, he graduated to the factory Suzuki team in MotoGP™, picking up plenty of top ten finishes, which included two fifth place finishes at Barcelona-Catalunya and Sepang. He was a podium contender throughout 2011 with the team, but when Suzuki left the Championship at the end of the year, Bautista moved over to the Gresini Honda outfit for 2012, notching up a first rostrum in the premier class at Misano. He took two more podiums for the team, his last in MotoGP™, as he moved to Aprilia to develop their early comeback into the class for 2015, achieving top ten results. He then moved to Ducati for 2017 and 2018 with the Aspar Racing Team, taking a best of fourth in his second Grand Prix with the team in Argentina. One of Bautista’s last memories from MotoGP™ was his mighty performance at Phillip Island in the factory team, replacing the injured Jorge Lorenzo, when he battled for the podium before taking P4.
TURNING BACK TIME: those who shone doing the same
Making a wildcard hasn’t been easy in MotoGP™ from WorldSBK, but there’s been an array of success stories. Who can forget the magnificent Troy Bayliss’ return to Valencia in 2006, when he dominated the race to be a rare wildcard race winner in MotoGP™, whilst in 2008 at Donington Park, Ben Spies was a wildcard replacement for the injured Loris Capirossi, qualifying a fine P8 and scoring points in P14 – this preceded Spies’ move to WorldSBK for 2009. The American made another appearance in 2009’s finale at Valencia, when he was P7 on the Sterilgarda Yamaha M1 machine ahead of a full-time MotoGP™ switch in 2010. Back in the early days of WorldSBK, eventual-four-time World Champion Carl Fogarty wildcarded at the 1993 British Grand Prix at Donington Park, when he was set to score a podium but ran out of fuel on the run to the line on the last lap, losing out to fellow Brit and privateer Niall Mackenzie, who took his last Grand Prix podium.
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Source: WorldSBK.com