{"id":395693,"date":"2026-01-06T17:03:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T17:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/395693\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T17:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T17:03:12","slug":"alvaro-bautista-opened-the-door-for-motogp-riders-to-come-to-world-superbikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/395693\/","title":{"rendered":"Alvaro Bautista \u201copened the door\u201d for MotoGP riders to come to World Superbikes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alvaro Bautista believes he \u201copened the door\u201d for more MotoGP riders considering World Superbike seats as good moves for their careers.<\/p>\n<p>The veteran <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MotoGP<\/a> rider lost his place on the grand prix grid at the end of the 2018 season and took up a ride with Ducati in World Superbikes.<\/p>\n<p>He won back-to-back world titles in the series with Ducati in 2022 and 2023, before slumping to distant thirds over the previous two seasons.<\/p>\n<p>Since 2019, a number of MotoGP riders have taken up rides in World Superbikes having lost their place on the grand prix grid, including the likes of Danilo Petrucci, Iker Lecuona and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/911996\/miguel-oliveira\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Miguel Oliveira<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with Sport.es, Bautista believes he is responsible for more MotoGP riders seeing World Superbike as a legitimate alternative for their careers.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s great that the Superbike World Championship is now attracting more riders,\u201d the Spaniard said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe opportunity presented itself, and I said, \u2018I don\u2019t want to go into the Superbike World Championship; it doesn\u2019t motivate me.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut that year I opened the door for everyone else, both for other riders and for the public.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStep by step, everything grew, and the level of the championship improved significantly compared to 2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow all the drivers are much more professional, and I feel responsible for this change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis year, 2026, MotoGP riders like [Somkiat] Chantra, [Miguel] Oliveira, and [Jake] Dixon are joining.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe championship has become a genuine alternative to MotoGP. The championship is growing, and its reputation is improving.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHopefully, with the new riders and the ever-increasing level of competition, we can continue to offer good battles and a decent show to open more doors and attract more fans, especially here in Spain, where it remains somewhat difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alvaro Bautista believes he \u201copened the door\u201d for more MotoGP riders considering World Superbike seats as good moves&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[8074,64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-395693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-alvaro-bautista","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-motor","12":"tag-motor-sports","13":"tag-motosport","14":"tag-motosports","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}