While we don’t know who the second rider will be at the factory-backed Honda team next year in WorldSBK, we do know who it won’t be…and it won’t be Leon Camier.
This is because Camier is headed to a different red bike, the Ducati Panigale V4 R at Barni Racing, for the 2020 season.
It is news that have known for the past few days, ever since it became clear that Takaaki Nakagami would need surgery to repair his injured shoulder, which he hurt during a crash with Valentino Rossi earlier this year at Assen.
And now, we have official word that Johann Zarco will ride in Nakagami’s place at the LCR Honda, for the final three races for the 2019 MotoGP season.
Takaaki Nakagami will be staying with the LCR Honda team for 2020, HRC and the LCR Honda team have officially confirmed.
After a long period of negotiation, Honda and Nakagami have finally reached terms that will see the Japanese rider staying in Lucio Cecchinello’s team for another season.
Confirming the news we already reported on, Alex Lowes will leave the Pata Yamaha team at the end of the 2019 WorldSBK, and move into green colors for next year, as the teammate to Jonathan Rea in the Kawasaki Racing Team.
Lowes replaces Leon Haslam in the factory Kawasaki team, and brings with him a great deal of knowledge on Team Green’s fastest rising competitor: Yamaha.
It is news that has long been coming, ever since the Suzuka 8-Hours, but now it is official. Toprak Razgatlioglu will be leaving Puccetti Racing at the end of the season to race with the factory Pata Yamaha WorldSBK team in 2020.
Toprak Razgatlioglu will replace Alex Lowes in the Pata Yamaha squad, racing alongside Michael van der Mark, who will start his fourth season with the factory Yamaha team.
HRC have confirmed the signing of Alvaro Bautista for the 2020 WorldSBK season. The Spaniard will be leaving Ducati to join the new factory team run out of Barcelona for next year, to ride the brand new Honda CBR1000RR to be presented later this year.
Alvaro Bautista will be staying in the World Superbike paddock and racing a Honda in 2020, it seems.
The plans for a new HRC-run WorldSBK team to be based in Barcelona, racing a brand new Honda CBR1000RR, put an end to any speculation that Bautista might be heading back to MotoGP to take the place of Johann Zarco at KTM for next year.
Rumors and reports from Portimao are solidifying the story that Bautista will be staying in WorldSBK. A thorough piece on German-language publication Speedweek set out Honda’s World Superbike plans for 2020, including the plans for a new bike.
It doesn’t surprise us to hear that Tom Sykes and BMW Motorrad have committed themselves to another season together, racing the BMW S1000RR in the WorldSBK Championship.
While the 2019 has been a slow start for the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK team, Sykes and the S1000RR have seen continued progress. As such, we have seen Sykes on pole position at the British round, and also on the podium at Misano, Donington Park, and Laguna Seca.
With this forward progress, BMW Motorrad says that its aim is to be on the box in 2020, and surely that means on the top step on more than one occasion.
It had been known unofficially for weeks, but today, the Aruba.it Ducati team announced that they have signed Scott Redding to ride for them in WorldSBK for the 2020 season.
Redding has had a very strong season in BSB since losing his ride in MotoGP with Aprilia, and is currently second in the standings behind Be Wiser Ducati teammate Josh Brookes.
The Austrian round of MotoGP has been a weekend of bombshells. After the news that Ducati and Jorge Lorenzo had been in talks to replace Jack Miller in the Pramac squad before the weekend, on Sunday night it emerged that Johann Zarco asked to be released from his contract with KTM for 2020.
The Frenchman has long been unhappy with the Austrian factory, sometimes very publicly so. Since the moment he jumped on the KTM RC16, he has struggled to adapt to the bike.
Though empty seats are limited for the 2020 MotoGP season, in recent weeks there has been some movement to fill those vacancies.
The moves have mostly been unsurprising, but then with so few seats available, the chances of something unexpected happening are very slim.
Just before the Sachsenring, we saw Danilo Petrucci keeping his seat alongside Andrea Dovizioso in the factory Ducati team for the 2020 season, a fully expected move since the Italian’s victory at Mugello back in early June.
That leaves Jack Miller in the Pramac Ducati team for another year, though that deal is not yet signed.
A deal is close, however. “We’re fighting over pennies now,” Miller said on Sunday night in Germany. Miller will have a Ducati Desmosedici GP20 at his disposal, the same as his teammate Pecco Bagnaia, but there were still a few financial details to be ironed out.
“It more or less should be done, I got some information today. So hopefully we can get it done before we get back at Brno and put all that stuff behind us and just focus on riding.”