Alessandro Delbianco will be back on the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship grid at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours as the Italian takes the place of Dominique Aegerter at the GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team. Aegerter was injured while training in Austria and was flown back to Switzerland where he underwent surgery, and, due to the rib and shoulder injuries suffered, will miss the Motul French Round. Yamaha have called upon the services of Delbianco to replace the #77 this weekend.
Delbianco last raced in WorldSBK in 2022 when he was a stand in at the TPR Team Pedercini Racing outfit, although he didn’t take a single chequered flag in the Emilia-Romagna Round, he competed in. The year before, rode for the MIE Racing Honda team at the Autodrom Most, where he again didn’t finish any race. In his first and only full season, in 2019 with the same MIE Honda outfit, he finished 18th in the Championship with a best race result of ninth in Race 1 at Donington Park.
Since his only full-time WorldSBK campaign, Delbianco has been competing in the CIV Superbike championship in Italy. He was fifth in 2020 before improving to second in 2021 and 2022, taking his first two wins in the Superbike class in the latter year on Aprilia machinery. He switched to Yamaha for 2023 and was on the top step at Imola in Race 2, before adding two wins this season at Mugello and Misano.
Discussing his WorldSBK return, the Italian said: “I’m very grateful for this opportunity, but at the same time, I would like to wish a speedy recovery to Dominique. I’ll try to enjoy as much as I can this weekend, aware that it’ll be a great experience. I would also like to say a massive thank you to Filippo and Yamaha for thinking of me as an option for this round, I can’t wait to be on track Friday morning for the first session of free practice.”
Team Manager Filipo Conti added: “We’re very sorry for what happened to Dominique, we wish him a very speedy recovery, hoping to have him back as soon as possible in the garage. At the same time, we would like to welcome Alessandro with us. We’re happy we’ll be able to give him this opportunity and we believe he’ll be a great addition to our team, aware of his talent and his experience on the Yamaha R1 machine as he already proved in the Italian championship where he’s having a strong season there. Moreover, we’re confident we’ll be able to enjoy a solid weekend with Remy; we had a good first half of the season and we’re keen to enjoy a strong season finale and to make further progress, so we cannot wait to be back on track.”
There was also an update provided on Aegerter in the announcement. The #77 had surgery to stabilise his injuries and he has since returned home to continue his recoveries, with Aegerter set to be reassessed before the Italian Round at Cremona in a couple of weeks.
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Source: WorldSBK.com