Aspar Announce Laverty, Switch To Ducati For 2016
- Oct 17, 2015
- 2 min read
Aspar MotoGP Team have, today, announced that they will field Ducati machinery in 2016. The switch had been mooted for some time, with the biggest indication coming last month when Ducati-contracted rider Yonny Hernandez was signed by the team.
Aspar have been running Open class production Hondas for the past two years to very little success. Jorge Martinez 'Aspar' has been running his team for years in the smaller classes, and stepped up to the MotoGP class in 2010 with Ducati backing.
The team also confirmed today that Eugene Laverty will continue with them next season. The Northern Irishman has enjoyed a decent rookie season on difficult machinery, taking his first Open class victory in Aragon with a 14th place finish.
“Our first two years in MotoGP, 2010 and 2011, were quite positive alongside Ducati”, 'Aspar' stated. “That was before the arrival of the CRT bikes, where we enjoyed a lot of success. Throughout our time so far in MotoGP we have worked with Ducati, Aprilia and Honda. Now we return to Ducati, and without a doubt I am expecting we will have competitive bikes and great riders capable of scoring the kinds of results we deserve, which is inside the top ten. Ducati have made big changes in recent times, in particular in their racing department in the hands of Gigi Dall'Igna. He's someone we have had an excellent relationship with for 20 years now. I have complete faith in his abilities, and that is definitely one of the reasons we have decided to work with Ducati once more in the future.”
Dall'Igna commented, “We are very pleased to welcome the Aspar Team once again to the Ducati family. I have know Jorge for many years and I worked together with his team in 125 and 250 in the past, achieving many important results. We will provide competitive bikes and technical support for the team, with the aim of helping the riders reach the results they are aiming for. Thanks to the agreement with the Aspar Team there will be eight riders on Ducati Desmosedici bikes in the Championship next year, and this shows that the increased competitiveness of our bikes is now a reality recognised in the MotoGP paddock.”
Next year, Aspar will join Avintia, Pramac and the Factory team as Ducati representatives, and this will be interesting. The 2017 ruled impose a maximum of six bikes per manufacturer, meaning one of these teams will lose its bikes. Obviously it won't be the latter two, so next year will be a dogfight between Aspar and Avintia to keep a hold of their Desmosedicis for the following seasons.
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