Superbike: Aruba Racing Ducati looks to 2017

The season of the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team was dotted with many lights, Chaz Davies' 11 victories in the championship against the eight of the current World Champion Jonathan Rea, and some shadows in the first part of the season, four crashes of the Welsh driver and Davide Giugliano's injury, which affected the fight for the title.

The Panigale has been the best bike seen in the last four rounds, in which Davies has won seven of the last eight races: Ducati WorldSBK project director Ernesto Marinelli looks at the positives and hopes to continue winning next season.

“The four retirements are the ones that affected the fight for the Championship” – he declared marinelli – “But this can happen and obviously the last part of the season was very positive, so we hope to start next season with the same competitiveness and the same pace with which we finished this one!”

Next year Marco Melandri will team up with Davies, already teammates in the past at BMW: with the Italian driver's 19 overall successes against the Welshman's 20, the rivalry will be intense in the team, but Marinelli is sure that this will bring them to be even faster on the track.

“I think we will have two strong riders next year. This is obviously always a challenge, but both are very professional and will push each other, so hopefully we can be up front with both of them, pretty consistently. Obviously this is what we hope for and we will try to do our best to welcome Marco in the best possible way, and with a bike that he likes, and with Chaz we will try to make him even stronger."

Melandri has already carried out tests with Ducati during the summer break and the results are very positive: the next step for the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team will be the sessions scheduled in Spain in November: “Naturally the initial tests with Marco are been positive” – confirmed Marinelli – “During the winter we intend to go to Aragon and Jerez in November and then we will start again in January with a couple of tests, before having to prepare everything and send it to Australia”.