IN
THE
WIND
P52
Bautista To HRC
S
paniard Alvaro Bau-
tista will remain in the
WorldSBK paddock for a
second year but will take on
a whole new challenge by
joining the all-new Honda
HRC team.
Bautista makes the
switch from the Aruba.it
Racing—Ducati outfit to the
all-new and much-antici-
pated factory Honda team,
supported by HRC. The
34-year-old has taken 15
wins in 2019 but his incon-
sistent form has landed him
91 points behind four-time
WorldSBK Champion Jona-
than Rea (Kawasaki Racing
Team WorldSBK).
"I am really happy, because I
believe a lot in the new project
with HRC," Bautista said. "They
want to come back to the World
Superbike Championship as
a full factory team, so this has
motivated me a lot. To join the
HRC factory is very important, as
they are an important factory and
want to win in WorldSBK again.
The challenge for next year will
be very difficult, but for sure, I
will try and use my experience in
the World Superbike Champion-
ship from this season to develop
the bike and hopefully, fight for
victories.
"It was not an easy decision to
make for me, as I am really hap-
py with the Ducati family," said
Bautista. "We started with the
new bike and a new project, and
we were winning a lot of races. It
was not easy, but the project that
HRC offered me motivated me
a lot, as we will start from zero. I
feel like one of the most impor-
tant people in this project."
HRC President Yoshishige
Nomura stated his delight of
Bautista joining the HRC family.
"We are very happy to welcome
Alvaro Bautista to our WorldSBK
racing project for next year," he
said. "His arrival in the Honda
racing family underlines our
strong commitment to compete
at full force in every motorsport
category, fighting to achieve top
sporting results and looking for
the best technological innova-
tions, in order to offer our fans
and customers fun, joy and
excellent products. Alvaro is a
very fast, experienced rider who
has already shown his strong
racing attitude and competitive-
ness in his GP years and in his
first season in the WorldSBK
championship. We are confident
that he will make a significant
contribution to the growth and
development of our project in the
exciting and challenging Super-
bike World Championship." CN
Spaniard Alvaro Bautista
announced his new partnership
with Honda for next year's
WorldSBK Championship.
PHOTO: GOLD & GOOSE
