With the official “works” Ducati team sitting out the 2011 season, all eyes have been on their two incumbent riders to see where they are heading in the upcoming season.
With the announcement last week that Haga is heading to the privateer PATA Racing Team (a combining of the previous DFX and the Borciani teams) on an Aprilia, today’s announcement also settles the immediate future of Michel Fabrizio.
The Italian will become the sole entrant for Francis Batta’s Alstare Suzuki Team, the team for which he won the 2003 European Superstock championship. With Suzuki further tightening the purse strings, Batta has been forced into a 1 bike entry and, for a while there, it was looking touch-and-go if there would be a team at all.
Previous incumbents, Leon Haslam (off to BMW) and Max “crasher” Neukirchner (TBA) are out.