Tito Rabat (links) and Marc Marquez as a young Red Bull Rookies Cup driver – the son of a truck driver should have a remarkable career in MotoGP, while his compatriot in the premier class was never able to match the performance of the smaller classes (© MotoGP).

Barni Racing ahead of the 2021 WorldSBK season

After strong years in WorldSBK, Barni Racing fell into insignificance, of all things, after signing Marco Melandri in the 2020 season. We still remember the little one’s sayings when, before the season was delayed due to the corona pandemic, he said “with this top team and a strong bike like the Ducati Panigale V4R there will be no excuses“. Melandri’s first race in Jerez de la Frontera was mixed up after his resignation (he announced the first in July 2019 a few days after Rea lapped him in Donington). The little man from Ravenna finished 8th in the first race and only saw this chequered flag on P18 in the Superpole Race. A ninth place followed on Sunday afternoon.

Little man with a hat that is too big – Marco Melandri photographed by us at the WorldSBK autograph session 2019. On the left edge of the picture, his former GRT Yamaha team-mate Sandro Cortese. Neither of them could fully meet the expectations of their team at the time and when they finished ninth and twelfth in the World Cup, they had to look for a new employer.

Melandri’s early failure and resignation followed immediately
Some thought after Marco’s comeback could have built on two top ten results. But in Portimão a complete crash followed, and the northern Italian travelled on to Aragon with only 2 points. Here he should have been one of the top favourites due to the equivalent material like last year’s dominator Alvaro Bautista. Probably even lighter and definitely smaller than the Spaniard, Melandri should at least have fought for the podium here. Michael Ruben Rinaldi did so in his place and his compatriot failed miserably. Sixth points in 6 races on the two weekends, that was underground. The second retirement from racing Melandris followed immediately, and a new return is hardly to be expected. GoEleven replaced Barni with P5 as the best Ducati customer team and Barni Racing fell to 11th place in the team standings.

From the left winners Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki), Marco Melandri (P2, Ducati), third-placed Tom Sykes and Toprak Razgatlioglu (both Kawasaki) photographed by us after the 1st race in Brno. It was the last time Melandri raced for a works team and was victorious, with a one-two at the season opener in Australia.

Barni Racing’s glory years as the best private team

It was in Melandris last year as a factory rider when Javier “Xavi” Forés achieved a total of five podiums for Barni Ducati on the Panigale R in the 2018 season and was seventh in the World Championship. He had achieved exactly the same position for his team as the best private driver in the final accounts the year before. In 2016, the Spaniard finished ninth in the World Cup. It had been Barni Racing’s most glorious years with Ducati and many did not understand that Forés had to look for a new team for 2019. His successor Michael Ruben Rinaldi had apparently joined the team at the urging of Ducati, but was only thirteenth in the World Championship. The Italian really took off one season later with competitor GoEleven Ducati.

From left Tom Sykes on his last Magny-Cours weekend for Kawasaki with team-mate and freshly baked 4-time world champion Jonathan Rea and next to him Xavi Forés (Barni Ducati), photographed by us in France during the winner’s interview. The Spaniard celebrated the fourth podium of the season, but he probably already knew then that he had to leave at Barni at the end of the year.

Will Barni Racing turn things around with Tito Rabat?

Here the opinions seem to be most clearly divided when it comes to the prognoses. His compatriot Alvaro Bautista believes the Catalans have a very strong season. However, if you judge him only on the basis of his training achievements, he and his team would be happy in the end if he even made it into the points. In this respect, Tito Rabat is almost like reading coffee grounds if you want to make a prognosis for him. After all, he became Moto2 World Champion in 2014, which proves his consistency and speed, at least 7 years ago. We therefore believe that Alvaro is not wrong with his view and that Rabat will be a serious competitor in 2021. At least except for Chaz Davies, who is competing with factory material, all competing teams and their drivers have to beware of Rabat. It wouldn’t even surprise us if he crosses the finish line before most of the BMW drivers, at least at the season opener.

Esteve “Tito” Rabat (Barni Ducati Racing) in Aragon – the son of a jeweler from Barcelona is considered a “marathon man” and he was usually the one who completed the most laps in the winter tests. Without paying too much attention to the lap times, he gained a lot of experience on the Panigale V4R.

>Aragon preview: see separate report on this page.

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