Reale Avintia Racing announced that they will continue to use the Ducati bikes for two more seasons and signed Karel Abraham as its new rider.
The Spanish outfit has been using the Ducati bikes since the 2014 season and will continue on to use the Desmosedici for two more seasons until 2020 after a new agreement reached between the team and the manufacturer.
The team also announced the signing of Abraham for two seasons as well as he makes a switch from the Angel Nieto outfit. The Czech’s current teammate Alvaro Bautista moves to the Superbike World Championship, Abraham continues on in MotoGP.
Abraham revealed that the deal was signed in Silverstone with the announcement made on the eve of the San Marino GP. “I’m very happy to continue in Motogp next year and would like to thanks for this opportunity to Reale Avintia Racing Team,” he said.
“We signed in Silverstone because it was very important for me to finalise every detail of the contract in order to get competitive machinery. This worked out also thanks to a big help of Luigi Dall’Igna and Paolo Ciabatti from Ducati factory.
The important part is, that it will be Ducati GP18 with the newest specification, which has a good results from this season. Thanks to that I believe, that we will be able to make some really good results and I am already very excited about the next season.”
Abraham made his MotoGP debut in 2011 riding a Ducati with Czech outfit Cardion Motoracing. The team then made a switch to ART for one year in 2013 and changed its manufacturer again to Honda for two seasons after which it left the premier class.
Abraham then joining the Aspar team (now Angel Nieto) in 2017 riding a Ducati and continued with the Spanish team in 2018. He was left with no ride after the team decided to leave the premier class as SIC Racing team took over its entry.
The team’s CEO Raul Romero said: “I’m very happy to see Karel Abraham joining our team. He is a hard worker, has won in Moto2, and has a lot of experience in MotoGP and with Ducati.
“I think that with better material and with the work of the whole team, next year Karel will be able to show its true potential. And I’m also happy to announce that we will continue with Ducati for two more seasons.”
It remains to be seen who will be Abraham’s partner in 2019. When Xavier Simeon signed with Avintia last year, it was said to be a multi-year deal. However, Simeon has had a tough rookie year which leaves him vulnerable against the experience of Tito Rabat.
Rabat missed the British GP after suffering a leg fracture in a freak FP4 incident and will miss this weekend’s San Marino GP with his bike (GP17) to be ridden by Simeon, while Christophe Ponsson rides Simeon’s bike for his MotoGP debut.