Andrea Iannone joining Go Eleven Ducati as drug ban ends

Andrea Iannone will join the Go Eleven Ducati team for the 2024 WorldSBK season, it’s been confirmed.

Iannone’s destination for 2024 has been a major piece of speculation since it was confirmed by Ducati Corse General Manager Gigi Dall’Igna at the Misano round of the 2023 WorldSBK season that Iannone will be riding a satellite Ducati in the production-derivative series next year.

With Barni Spark having re-signed Danilo Petrucci for 2024, Iannone’s options were limited to Motocorsa and Go Eleven. While Axel Bassani confirmed at the Portuguese round that he will be heading to Kawasaki in 2024, opening the Motocorsa seat, Philipp Oettl has regularly been the slowest Ducati since he joined Go Eleven at the beginning of 2022.

Now, the wait for the confirmation is over, and Iannone will be a Go Eleven rider from next year, replacing Oettl.

Andrea Iannone said: “I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time; I’m finally back on track, where I spent my life. I thank Gigi Dall’Igna, Paolo Ciabatti, Claudio Domenicali, Marco Zambenedetti and the whole Go Eleven team for their trust, with their support I have rediscovered the enthusiasm I had as a child. Special thanks also to the WorldSBK family for the opportunity. I’m fully excited.”

Gianni Ramello, Team Owner, said: “Since its birth, Go Eleven has tried to achieve increasingly important goals and with the move to Ducati we have come closer to our desire. Despite being a private team we achieved a victory, several podiums, we won a Best Independent World Title, we gave world-famous riders the opportunity to defend our colours with excellent results demonstrating that our Team has done a great job. 

“Now we found ourselves having to take a further step and achieve another goal, a new challenge, and this time it will be more hard and challenging. A rider like Andrea has not only shown over the years that he is fast and truly talented, but he is also certainly a public character of great interest. 

“We strongly want to show that we have made this decision because we believe in [the] potential of the rider, and we are sure that he will give his all to achieve great results.”

Denis Sacchetti, Team Manager, added: “We have worked hard to make this dream real, we have wanted to shout it out to the world for some time now, but creating such an important project is not easy and must be structured carefully. The Maniac has decided to get back into the game, it’s not for everyone, it takes guts after everything that has happened and so much time away from racing. It is a courageous choice, for some it may seem crazy, but the right dose of madness and courage can lead to great feats.”

Iannone, winner of the historic (as Ducati’s first GP win since 2010) 2016 MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix, will be making his return to racing after four years out next year. The Italian was banned from racing by the FIM the end of 2019 for 18 months when he failed a drugs test. Iannone blamed his positive test on a contaminated meal he ate during the 2019 MotoGP Malaysian Grand Prix weekend. This explanation was rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, who extended the ban to four years.

The destination of Philipp Oettl for next year is unconfirmed. Rumours suggest he will be moving from WorldSBK to the MotoAmerica paddock.