Superbike: Possible future with Yamaha for Melandri?

Next year Yamaha will officially return to Superbike and when a manufacturer of this caliber decides to take a step like this it means that it will be, as far as possible, competitive straight away, also with a view to a comparison with its "cousins" Kawasaki: this is obviously opening up interesting scenarios for next year.

With the world title already practically assigned, barring huge surprises in the five rounds still to be contested, it is the drivers' market that holds sway in the paddock, and it is not certain that some big names will not move.

According to the German motoring site Speedweek.com, in fact, Sylvain Guintoli, the reigning World Champion, is in negotiations with Yamaha: having moved to the Pata Honda team, he is struggling more than expected and has never really adapted to the new team and especially at CBR, absolutely not at the level of Kawasaki, Aprilia and Ducati.
A difficult situation for the title holder, to which we also add that the French driver still has zero podiums won and is currently suffering from an abysmal gap of 248 points from the leader Rea.

But Guintoli's name is not the only one that seems to be circulating in Yamaha: the news of the early and consensual termination of the contract that tied Marco Melandri to Aprilia has opened up a new scenario, with the name of the man from Ravenna forcefully back in play for a place in Superbike.
Championship to which Melandri would return in a hurry: it is well known that, at the end of last season, he had done everything to avoid being involved in the MotoGP project, which started a year earlier than expected and which to date has not provided any satisfaction.
When Melandri finally accepted this challenge he was well aware that things would not be easy, although perhaps he would not have expected to find himself at the back so often, never in the points.
For the German GP the Ravenna native will be replaced by Michael Laverty, test rider from Noale and older brother of Eugene, another rider well known to the Superbike public, currently involved in MotoGP in the Open class with the Aspar team.

At the moment there are no official statements from Melandri regarding the termination of the contract or his future, only one tweet (@MarcoMelandri33): “I'm taking my life back!!”