SBK: Albert Arenas, Another Spaniard in Ducati’s Fold; Alex Delbianco Forgotten

The WorldSBK grid is now complete: Go Eleven Ducati has officially announced the arrival of Albert Arenas, fresh off his World Supersport title win. He will join Lorenzo Baldassarri and ride a Ducati V4 R.

Arenas won out over Alex Delbianco, a two-time Italian Superbike champion. The Rimini-born rider had hoped for another opportunity, but for weeks it had been clear he would have to bow to the complex strategies that shape the World Championship rider market. More than a technical issue, it comes down to sponsorship.

The team from Piedmont, with its technical base in Emilia-Romagna, joined the paddock twenty years ago and will field two bikes in the World Superbike Championship for the first time. It is a considerable technical and financial undertaking for one of the paddock’s truly independent teams. Sponsor support is crucial to making it happen—the same sponsor that backed Albert Arenas on his charge to the Supersport title. With no opening at Yamaha, whose four Superbike seats had already gone to Locatelli, Miller, Gardner and Manzi, only one opportunity remained: Go Eleven.

The choice of Go Eleven was also driven by technical considerations. Arenas made a strong start in Supersport, showing the consistency typically associated with riders coming from the Grand Prix ranks. He won four races, compared with six for his pursuer Valentin Debise on the ZXMoto, but finished on the podium 17 times in 24 races. A real metronome, in other words, making the choice entirely understandable—not just from a strategic and financial perspective. The disappointment at missing out on Alex Delbianco is considerable, because his personality would certainly have brought excitement to a paddock desperately trying to bring Superbike back into fans’ hearts. Ducati will now have another Spaniard, joining Iker Lecuona, who, aboard the factory Panigale, is the leading candidate to succeed Nicolò Bulega. That is, of course, setting aside changes to the regulations and the move to a single tyre supplier.

The 30-year-old Spaniard, who won the Moto3 world title in 2020, had found himself on the fringes in Moto2. Now, in just a few months, he has secured a ride on a Ducati Panigale V4 R in the World Superbike Championship. "I’m absolutely thrilled about this new challenge. I’m fired up! My main goal when I joined Supersport was to win the World Championship and race in Superbike! The step up comes at a great time in my career. This year, I’ve had the chance to get to know the production-based paddock, race twice in the same weekend and learn all the circuits. I’ll be a rookie and have a lot to learn about the bike. I can’t wait to try the Ducati. We know it’s a competitive bike, but I want to find out where I stand and what results I can achieve. I’d like to thank Team Pata Go Eleven for making the commitment to field a second bike. I’ve already had the chance to meet my teammate Balda and some of the team. Now all that’s left is to hit the track!"

Albert Arenas will make his debut on the Go Eleven Ducati in Valencia, during the test session scheduled for December 9–10. Virtually all the teams will be on track, along with three riders arriving from MotoGP for the first time: Franco Morbidelli (Ducati Aruba), Brad Binder (BMW) and Jack Miller (Yamaha).

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