Michael Ruben Rinaldi is the most recent rider to guarantee his spot on the 2024 WorldSBK Championship grid after signing a new contract with Motocorsa Racing.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi will be racing in an entirely different setting next season after joining seasoned Ducati satellite team Motocorsa Racing. Having spent three years as a member of the factory squad, Rinaldi will keep riding a Ducati for the upcoming season.
His fellow Italian Axel Bassani, who is joining the factory Kawasaki team, will be replaced by Rinaldi in the single-bike team.
Following a contentious encounter in Race 1 that resulted in a penalty for the five-time WorldSBK race winner, Bassani was trailing him in the battle for fifth place in the final 2023 WorldSBK Championship standings.
“2024 starts today!” Michael Ruben Rinaldi could not hide his excitement to join Motocorsa. “A new team, new people and one great goal… this is why Motocorsa is the right choice.
“It would be complex and undoubtedly reductive to explain in so few lines all the reasons why Motocorsa and I chose each other and together decided to undertake this great challenge for the 2024 season.
“I would therefore like to use just two words: PASSION and AMBITION. Keywords that were, from the first meeting with Lorenzo Mauri, the essence of a clear message that he wanted to convey to me, wanting me to be at the centre of a solid and competitive project to stay and aim, with a free mind, even higher.
“A vision that matches perfectly with what I am looking for… a team that has the same passion as me for this sport, the ambition, the desire, and the spirit of sacrifice that are needed to achieve great results.
“For this reason, I am very happy, and I can’t wait to start working with the team to create an excellent base on a technical level and a positive environment within the garage that can be productive and stimulating.
“I want to thank Lorenzo Mauri and Team Motocorsa, Vittorino Mesaroli and Mesaroli Spa, Ducati and all the sponsors who made this project possible.”
The entirety of Michael Ruben Rinaldi’s WorldSBK career has been devoted to racing for Ducati. In 2018, he joined the Aruba.it Junior Team marking his debut season with his best finish being sixth in Brno.
The Italian racer joined the BARNI Racing Team in 2019 and participated in every race of the season. He outperformed Markus Reiterberger to finish 13th in the Championship. His fourth place finish in the race at Jerez marked the pinnacle of his 2019 campaign.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi would once again change teams for the 2020 campaign, spending a full season with Team GoEleven. He stunned the paddock by winning his first WorldSBK race at Aragon as well as two more podiums that year.
In 2021, Rinaldi got his dream offer to join the factory Aruba.it Racing Ducati team. He went on to race for the team for a further three seasons, winning five races during that time. His best season ended up being 2022, when he finished the year fourth in the rankings following a steady campaign.
