Former MotoGP race winner Danilo Petrucci has issued a warning for those currently on the premier-class grid who may be contemplating a switch to the World Superbike paddock for 2024 – telling them to be wary of a shock to the system stemming from the differences between the categories.
The former factory Ducati rider made his own switch to WSBK at the start of the current season, joining Barni Racing after spending 2022 somewhat lost in the wilderness following his departure from KTM’s satellite MotoGP squad Tech3 at the end of 2021.
First winning a stage at the Dakar Rally as a rookie before going on to finish second in US domestic series MotoAmerica last year, it means that he was somewhat eased into his return to production bike racing – but even then, it hasn’t been a straightforward experience for the Italian, who needed six rounds (18 races) to finally score his first WSBK podium at the most recent round of the championship.
And, speaking after that race at Donington Park, he says that others in the MotoGP paddock should be paying heed to how long it’s taken him to get back to the sharp end – and that despite MotoGP racers like Carlos Checa and Max Biaggi having switched seamlessly in the past, any who tries in the modern era is in for a much harder time.
“Everybody thinks that MotoGP is for sure the pinnacle of racing,” he explained after the podium, “but you need to be inside World Superbikes to understand that these riders – Alvaro [Bautista], Toprak [Razgatlioglu], Johnny [Rea] – are like the first in MotoGP.
“All the other riders are really, really eager to stay in front. They want to beat you because you are a MotoGP winner, because you are quite experienced. They are hungry, and it’s quite tough.
“I’m not scared to say that I thought it would be easier to come here to World Superbikes and say ‘I won in MotoGP, I was on the podium many times’, but in the end it was quite tough. Really tough.”
It also has to do with the question of adaptation, with Petrucci pointing out during his Ducati MotoGP stand-in weekend earlier this year that the premier-class machinery was much more “stiff” – “so low, so rigid” – compared to superbikes, and that the Michelin tyre was an entirely different beast compared to Pirelli’s WSBK offering.
“You don’t feel the [MotoGP] tyre moving – when it moves, it’s late. With Superbike you feel everything more.
“But it’s not sometimes something better. Because when you feel the bike moving – I’m struggling now in Superbike when I feel the front moving on braking.”
It’s not a case of Petrucci speaking rhetorically when it comes to potential MotoGP-to-WSBK converts – as a number of riders in the MotoGP paddock have indeed been linked to some of the enticing open seats in WSBK, with frontrunning rides at the factory Ducati and Yamaha teams among those yet to be formally filled.
Initial speculation suggesting that Ducati was keen to move Pramac Racing rider Johann Zarco across to partner reigning world champion Bautista in its factory squad seems to have died down of late – but names like Fabio Di Giannantonio and Franco Morbidelli have been mooted instead as potential arrivals from MotoGP.
One ex-MotoGP rider has already formalised a switch from the paddock – sometime Aprilia premier-class rookie Sam Lowes will end a nine-season career in Moto2 to arrive to WSBK with the Marc van der Straten-owned Marc VDS team that he’s forged such a strong link with.
He will be riding a Ducati – “undoubtedly the bike to be on in WorldSBK”, as per van der Straten.
Lowes could also be joined in moving from Moto2 to WSBK by fellow Brit Jake Dixon, with the sometime MotoGP starter believed to be interested in a move to Yamaha’s WSBK set-up in particular should his first-choice option of stepping up to MotoGP full-time fail to materialise.
Ex-MotoGP full-timers in the 2023 WSBK standings
1. Alvaro Bautista (Ducati)
8. Danilo Petrucci (Barni Ducati)
11. Remy Gardner (GRT Yamaha)
12. Iker Lecuona (Honda)
13. Scott Redding (BMW)
17. Loris Baz (Bonovo BMW)
21. Hafizh Syahrin (Moriwaki Honda)
NC. Tito Rabat (Pucetti Kawasaki, part-time)
