Andrea Iannone will make a long-awaited return to top-level motorcycle competition in 2024 after agreeing terms to join the GoEleven Ducati team in the World Superbike Championship.
The Italian, who secured Ducati’s first MotoGP win in six years in Austria in 2016, has been forced to sit on the sidelines for the past four years. He was slapped with a racing ban having been found guilty of doping by the FIM towards the end of the 2019 premier class season when he was competing with the factory Aprilia squad.
Iannone was initially given an 18-month racing ban, though due to a failed appeal to get his sanction overturned at the end of 2020, it was increased to four seasons by the World Anti Doping Agency, the ban therefore concluding at the end of the 2023 season.
With a berth available within MotoGP, Iannone instead focussed on securing a seat within the WSBK paddock, with old employers Ducati keen to get him back within its ranks.
It was subsequently announced on Wednesday that he will join satellite squad GoEleven for next season in place of ex-Moto2 racer Philipp Ottl, who has raced for the outfit for the past two seasons.
Iannone said that he has been “waiting for this moment for a long time”, and expressed his gratitude that Ducati had given him the chance to re-start his professional motorcycle racing career.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time, I’m finally back on track, where I spent my life,” said Iannone.
“I thank Gigi Dall’Igna, Paolo Ciabatti, Claudio Domenicali, Marco Zambenedetti and the whole GoEleven 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.”
Iannone raced in MotoGP from 2013 until his doping ban was imposed in 2019, first running with long-standing Ducati satellite team Pramac before earning a promotion to the factory team for the 2015 campaign.
He would spend a further two terms with Ducati but was replaced by Jorge Lorenzo for 2017 after losing out in a shoot-out to team-mate Andrea Dovizioso in the battle for the remaining seat alongside the three-time premier class champion. This was in large part due to Iannone taking out his countryman while the duo battled for the rostrum in the 2016 Argentinean Grand Prix.
He then spent two years with the factory Suzuki operation, scoring a total of four rostrums in this period, before joining Aprilia in 2019.
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