On the eve of one of the most awaited rounds of the 2023 season, the rider market is going crazy and there are many rumors chasing each other in the Superbike world championship paddock. One of these sees Andrea Iannone at the center of attention, whose disqualification expires at the end of this year. The driver from Vasto was often talked about as one of those to be taken into consideration once the nightmare was over.
Now the name of “The Maniac” is back in the limelight, which could be close to landing in the series derivatives. After making his appearance at Misano last June, he has been approached on several occasions to the GoEleven team (which has not yet confirmed the presence or absence of Philipp Oettl), but now the rumors that give him close to arrival are insistent in Barni.
It’s no secret that at the beginning of the season Danilo Petrucci wanted to take some time to figure out how things were going and he had never hidden his dream of wanting to return to the Dakar. Will he continue in 2024 as well? The recent results at Donington suggest that he can still keep an open door in production derivatives, but that remains to be discovered. Meanwhile Iannone becomes a name that circulates more and more within the paddock.
Marco Barnabò himself, Barni’s team manager, commented on the news on the worldsbk, com website: “Andrea is a very talented rider and I’m sure he could really do well in this Championship. However now my focus is on working with Danilo. So, since the project isn’t well defined yet and until we reach the results we’ve set ourselves, I don’t know we’ll be able to do more than that. But never say never!”
Even Petrucci, whose place in Barni would be removed, commented on the news at the Donington round two weeks ago: “He’s already written to me! We texted each other just five minutes ago. He said ‘I wish I could be there next year’; It would be fun! Definitely not my job this time! Seriously, Andrea is really a great talent. I’d like to see him in this championship. It would be a nice step.”
At the moment however, as stated by Barni, the concentration of work is on the current season: “I’m very happy; we worked a lot on the bike since it is very different from Bautista’s and we still have to work to adapt it to Danilo. I’m sure that if we can carry on like this, we’ll bring home some good results with him in this 2023. This podium makes us very happy; we have been missing for a long time! I am very proud of the team, in these five years we have never given up and this podium repays us for all the sacrifices we have made”.
#SBK #Barni #Iannone