Five-Time WorldSBK Race Winner Fails to Land 2025 Seat

Michael Ruben Rinaldi will ride the new 2025 Yamaha R9 in what will be its first year as a homologated bike for WorldSSP, after losing his Motocorsa Ducati seat to former BSB rider Ryan Vickers.

The five-time WorldSBK race winner endured a very tough 2024 season after switching from the factory Aruba.it Ducati team, but to see Rinaldi take a step down to WorldSSP is not a move that had been anticipated.

Yamaha has remained a perennial challenger in the supersport category thanks to former Moto2 rider Stefano Manzi in recent times, but that was aboard the tried-and-trusted R6 which, let’s face it, was not really a match for the Ducati Panigale V2 in either of the last two campaigns.

But with the new R9 at his disposal, Rinaldi is hoping to rejuvenate his career with the GMT94 squad, telling WorldSBK.com: “It has been a big announcement for my career because, after many years in WorldSBK with Ducati, now it’s time for a new chapter in my life and my career. This will be Yamaha.

“I’m a Yamaha rider inside the GMT94 Team to defend the blue colours. The project is new, the bike is new, and I decided to accept this challenge because I truly believe Yamaha is the right bike to face a battle with Ducati.

“They decided to replace the R6 with the R9 and since the first meeting with them, I felt their will to win and accepted the challenge. I can’t wait to jump on the bike.”

First it was the Yamaha R7 which became the new kid on the block in the Japanese brand’s sportbike range in 2022, but the R9 has been declared the bike of choice for WorldSSP going forward.

The road version of the R9 features a 890cc four-stroke three-cylinder engine that produces 117.3bhp at 10,000rpm and 69.3Ib ft of torque at 7000rpm.

Rinaldi will not test the bike this year as Yamaha were unable to find an agreement with Motocorsa Ducati.

But the Italian remains excited at the prospect of jumping aboard the R9 and believes he won’t have to significantly change his riding style, saying: “The work they’ve done is not just for catching other manufacturers, but also, I spoke with Niccolo [Canepa, long-time Yamaha rider], and we think that, coming from WorldSBK, we don’t have to adapt the riding style too much. That test should be the plan, but we didn’t find an agreement with my old team so I can’t ride the bike until next year.”

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