The former Kawasaki factory team has given way to Bimota by KRT, but the Japanese manufacturer remains in the Superbike World Championship through Kawasaki Puccetti – which is now its factory team.
This year, it has only one rider, Garrett Gerloff. However, although it is not yet fully certain that the partnership will continue, Manuel Puccetti revealed that the ambition is to have two riders next year:
– We will talk about that [continuing with Kawasaki] in June. Our goal is to double up, to have a second bike with a top rider. We want to renew with Garrett, then we will evaluate how the market evolves for a second rider.
The owner of Kawasaki Puccetti stressed that this second rider can’t be a newcomer, but must be an established name: ‘We are certainly not looking for a gamble, but for a rider who is already proven in the championship’.
This year, several contracts in WSBK are set to expire, including in top teams. So there may be opportunities to sign big names who eventually become available for negotiation.