Reigning World Superbike Champion Alvaro Bautista will run a MotoGP test with the Desmosedici GP at Misano, Ducati officially confirmed.
Alvaro Bautista, who is currently riding for Factory Ducati in the World Superbike championship will get the chance to run a Ducati MotoGP bike in current configuration during a private test at the Misano Circuit in Italy next week.
Bautista, who competes in the series with a Panigale VR 4, will get to ride one of the Italian manufacturer’s Desmosedici premier class challengers during a two-day test at the Misano World Circuit on June 20 and 21. The test comes as a reward for winning Ducati’s first WSBK riders championship since Carlos Checa’s 2011 victory.
“After I won the World Championship in WorldSBK, I asked Ducati to have a test with the MotoGP bike because, from the outside, it seems like a really fun bike,” said Bautista. “We will do the test very soon.
“I don’t do the test with an intention to do a wildcard. I’d like to do the test and let’s see what happens. I don’t think there’s a lot of chance to repeat what Troy Bayliss did in 2006.
“It was another time and it was different. At the moment, in my mind, it’s only the World Superbike Championship. I just take the test like a prize and don’t think about Troy Bayliss.”
The three-time MotoGP podium finisher admitted in an interview with WSBK last month that he only wanted to test the bike because “it seems like a really fun bike.”
However, a wild-card ride for Bautista, who made his only premier class start with Ducati’s factory operation at the Australian Grand Prix in 2018, hasn’t yet been announced.
Bautista had a successful career in MotoGP throughout the 2010s, racing for not less than four different manufacturers. He had a lengthy tenure with the Gresini Honda squad and Angel Nieto Ducati wedged between two-year stints with the Suzuki and Aprilia factory operations before joining the World Superbike Championship.
In his debut season with the Gresini team, he had a high championship finish of fifth in 2012. During that season, he just finished outside the top ten once and achieved two podium finishes in third place at the San Marino and Japanese GPs.
Bautista will sport the Aruba.it Racing colors which will be the same as Michele Pirro’s outfit as a wildcard this weekend at Mugello. The spaniard has won five out of a potential six races in his last two trips to the Italian track on his Panigale.
