SBK | KRT: Leon Haslam will join Rea

The Kawasaki Racing Team has formalized the agreement with Leon Haslam for the next season of the WorldSBK World Championship: the English rider will make his return to the production-based series as teammate of the reigning Champion Jonathan Rea, with whom he has already shared the box two years in Honda.

The 35-year-old rider has currently been racing in the British Superbike Championship since 2015, last year he even came close to the title, after eight seasons in WorldSuperbike in which he collected five victories and 39 podiums, the last one just this year at Donington when he raced as a wild card with Kawasaki Puccetti Racing.

Leon Haslam he is obviously happy with the opportunity he has been given: “I have to thank Kawasaki very much for this opportunity, I can't wait to return to the Superbike World Championship. After having achieved victories, record laps, pole positions and having finished second during the seven years in the world championship, it will be nice to be here again. 2019 will offer me new challenges, given that the competitiveness of the bikes continues to be very high, but I am confident that with a professional and successful team we can have our satisfactions."

KRT team manager Guim Roda adds: “It is understandably difficult to replace a driver of Tom Sykes' caliber and the decision to sign Leon in 2019 was made considering various factors, some obvious and others responding to internal issues. There is a complex sporting strategy behind this decision and we thought that Leon was the best driver to achieve our goals. Rumors and speculation have been swirling for the past few weeks and we are happy to confirm Leon as KRT's choice. KHI knows, I know, he knows and team leader Marcel Duinker knows he has a huge responsibility on his shoulders. At 35, having this opportunity is the best opportunity to prove that you can still make a contribution. We have a clear idea of ​​where to find this contribution and, personally, I am motivated to use his experience combined with ours to try to create with Leon the strongest package we have ever seen. As we say in KRT… 'results are the clearest proof of effort'”.