Start of the WorldSBK race in Brno in June 2018 with Jonathan Rea, second from the right, who made himself immortal this weekend with victory number 60 and is already number 99 before the start of the 2021 season. The Northern Irishman only needs to win one more time so that he needs a three-digit number for his success. Marco Melandri, the Aruba.it Ducati pilot at the time, is on the 3rd starting position to the left of the starter house.

Aruba.it Ducati ahead of the 2021 season start – already 52 wins and no title yet

Ducati is considered by many to be the Ferrari of the two-wheelers. But is the company from Borgo Panigale, a suburb of Bologna, rightly entitled to this unofficial title? It is currently still undisputed that the Reds are the most successful brand in the Superbike World Championship, which has been held since 1988. In MotoGP, the Italians did almost unbelievable things. When they got on board a year after the introduction of the four-stroke prototype, Loris Capirossi went straight to the podium. The little northern Italian was already victorious in the 6th race. KTM can only dream of that. In the WorldSBK, the Italians became world champions for the first time in 1990 with Frenchman Raymond Roche. When attempting to defend their title, however, the works team failed in the following year because of a private team.

Doug Polen (Fast by Ferracci Ducati) here at his victory in Sugo – the US boy was the man who put his stamp on the WSBK in 1991. He drove his first season for the team of an American tuner, which was later accepted into the works team of the Reds together with his rider.

Ducati’s attempted falsification of history borders on fraud
Because the Italian-born tuner and his sensational driver disgraced the works team race after race, a pathetic attempt was later made to falsify the story. Obviously, Ducati arranged for it to ensure that Doug Poland’s first title was assigned to the works team afterwards. But the problem with this is that official results don’t lie. And of course these are just as available to us as programs from back then. There it says “Fast by Ferracci” as the team everywhere, while Roche stood at the time for the official works team, which had “Ducati Corse” in its name. It’s a shame, a global company later tried to try to get away with its fraudulent labelling.

Doug Polen (Fast by Ferracci Ducati) was the first WSBK world champion of a private team – so say the results sheets and programs from back then, which we have in sufficient numbers. His mark of 17 victories in the 1991 season would remain a record for a very long time. Neither in the team name nor on the entry lists was there any reference to Ducati Corse to be found this year. Which was also logical, because his team came from the USA and was operated by a Ducati tuner. A little later, Troy Corser became the first foreigner to become US Superbike Champion for this group before joining the WSBK.

Label fraud as a trivial offence
Even when Carlos Checa became world champion for Althea Racing on a Ducati in 2011, the Reds tried quickly to emphasize that he had factory support. But we still know the phenomenon today in reporting on sporting events and in other cases such as KTM. In Moto3, supposed Husqvarna’s rides with and two GasGas, but technically they are absolutely identical to the orange bikes (at least at the moment). Since we landed in the 3rd millennium, fraudulent labelling has evidently been considered a minor offence.

Carl Fogarty – the Ducati icon from the golden 90s of the Superbike World Championship. Before and in between, he was also on a Honda, but the man with the uncanny eyes won his 4 titles for the Reds. His mark of 59 victories was surpassed by Kawasaki ace Jonathan Rea in Brno in 2018, who also tied the Englishman in titles in the same year.

The first successes of the Ducati factory team, renamed Aruba.it in 2015
The first rider to win for Aruba Ducati in WorldSBK was Chaz Davies. At the season opener in Phillip Island (Australia), Chaz Davies achieved two third places in his second season for the works team of the Reds behind Kawasaki ace Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam (Aprilia). He was not a newcomer, but the Welshman drove his second season for the Ducati factory team. Only he had never won for the Italians last year. Chaz’s first win came, how could it be otherwise, in Motorland Aragon. It was only the fifth time that the then 27-year-old was on top of the podium. He had clinched his first win two years earlier at the Nürburgring in an Aprilia. One season followed 3 triumphs for BMW, a double victory in Aragon and one at their home race on the Nürburgring. From now on he should always remain loyal to Ducati and before the start of the 2021 season his brand is proud to have 32 wins. In 4 years he was three times vice world champion for Aruba.it Ducati.

Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Ducati) in pursuit of Leon Haslam (Aprilia) and Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki), at that time still with his number 65. In the back of the picture, wildcard driver Max Biaggi on another Aprilia. For more on the earlier years of WorldSBK, see our richly illustrated history.

What Alvaro Bautista and Scott Redding could not change either

After Chaz Davies had failed year after year from Jonathan Rea in the title fight from 2015 onwards, at some point in time he got the image of the eternal runner-up. Over time, the Welshman had complained more and more about his material, even if the high-torque V2 twin of the Panigale R with almost 1200cc often seemed more than equal to the 4-cylinder Kawasaki with only 1000cc. For the 2019 season, Chaz was finally heard, and he received not only a real rocket with the controversial MotoGP replica Panigale V4R, but also a new teammate in Alvaro Bautista. Its predecessor Marco Melandri switched to GRT Yamaha and publicly described the new Ducati as breaking a taboo and stated that, in his opinion, the Italian brand was violating the spirit of WorldSBK. Davies shouldn’t be really happy with that either, however.

Aragon winner Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Ducati) photographed by us on the way to the podium in April 2019 – the little Spaniard won all 3 races in his first SBK season and benefited from the completely superior top speed of the new Panigale V4R. The Spaniard had nine wins in a row. Nevertheless, after 3 laps, the FIM reduced the astronomically high maximum speed by only 250 rpm, which from a sporting point of view was tantamount to a scandal. In the years before that, Kawasaki had already been slowed down to a step of 500 rpm reduction.
Even after Aragon, the maximum permitted revolutions of the Ducati was still worlds above that of all its competitors. Once again, the FIM, as the highest motor sports authority, had offended the sporting world.

When the plan didn’t work out despite immense effort
Although Ducati pushed the regulations to the last possible with the V4R, their plan should not work out in the end. Chaz Davies couldn’t cope with the extreme character of the bike for a long time and on the other hand, Bautista won the first 4 laps completely superior. Thanks to the extreme top speed advantage and better acceleration due to about 15-25 HP higher engine power compared to the competition, there was no herb on the faster tracks against the small and light Spaniard. But Ducati had done the maths without Jonathan Rea and his team. From the Imola drivers’ track, the tide began to turn and even Davies grabbed Bautista the first points there.

Our recording from the Superpole Race of the WorldSBK in May 2019 in the Curva Tosa by Imola with Rea (Kawasaki) and Davies (Ducati) in their tough duel in front of Buatista (Ducati), Haslam (Kawasaki), Lowes and van der Mark (both Yamaha).

The failure of Bautista was followed by the next unsuccessful attack on the title
When Bautista began to string one mistake after another after the Imola round, Rea was suddenly back at the top of the interim rankings after the first race at Donington Park, and he did not give it up until the end of the season. It was already after the Spaniard’s first problems when Ducati apparently made him an offer for the next season, which must have offended the Spaniard. Alvaro Bautista then switched to HRC Honda and Ducati signed former MotoGP rider Scott Redding in his place. This turned out to be the right choice at the side of Davies, and he overshadowed his teammates right from the start. The Englishman, who comes from Quedgeley near Gloucester, was three times third in “Down Under” at the season opener.

Phillip Island winner Alex Lowes (left) and his Kawasaki teammate Rea (P2) with Ducati Hope Scott Redding as the third of us at the Paddock Show interview in Australia after the 2nd race of 2020.

Once again written off too early by many – the record world champion
After he had been jostled in the grass by former team-mate Sykes in the first race, Rea fell in the first race while trying to catch up when he briefly missed the ideal line while overtaking. After the forced Corona break, Redding had the best start and won two races, plus a second place behind Jonathan Rea. In addition to a victory, he finished second and only finished 6th in the last race with tire problems. This rank was enough for some hasty writers to report an alleged failure of the Kawasaki pilot. But he immediately belied their prejudices on the next lap in Portimão and won all three races by superiority. After that, he even drove a victory in Aragon on one of the problem tracks for his ageing ZX-10RR from 2018 and when Redding made a capital error, he took the championship lead and did not give it up until the end of the season.

The moment when Scott Redding had to bury his world championship chances in Motorland Aragon when he fell in pursuit of Johnny Rea (Kawasaki) and was pressed by his predecessor Alvaro Bautista (HRC Honda). A serious mistake was enough to miss out on the championship leader in the shortened 2020 World Championship season.

Will it finally work for Aruba.it Ducati in the seventh attempt with the title?

You will have an initial answer after the season opener in Aragon, although this route is very atypical. Much will depend on the further course of the season and whether the calendar can be maintained as planned. The most important point is of course how strong the competition with Kawasaki, led by Jonathan Rea and the other opponents will be. It is particularly important to pay attention to Yamaha, HRC Honda and BMW. Even if the latter were rather weak in the Aragon tests, they should not be written off too early. After the young Italian Michael Ruben Rinaldi was signed to the Ducati factory team instead of Chaz Davies, he still has to prove that his Aragon victory was not a flash in the pan for the GoEleven Ducati private team. As usual since 2015, almost everything depends on the reigning world champion. If he is as fast and consistent as he has been since joining Kawasaki, it will be a Herculean task for his opponents to beat him for an entire season.

Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) ahead of the Ducati duo Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Scott Redding in Aragon – these three drivers are among the top favourites for the podium for the season opener 2021 in Motorland near the small town of Alcaniz, before the Autodromo do Estoril just a week later.

>Preview of the Aragon weekend – see separate report on this page.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi in front of Scott Redding at the Circuito de Navarra during their first test for the Arubat.it Ducati factory team on the new track that was added to the WSBK calendar in 2021.

Unless otherwise stated, this applies to all images (© WorldSBK).