MotoGP: Abraham in and Simeon out at Avintia for 2019

Karel Abraham will make the switch from Aspar to Avintia Ducati in 2019, making a step up in machinery as he also moves from a GP16 Ducati to a two-year-younger GP18. Not officially confirmed, the Czech rider looks set to replace Belgian Xavier Simeon as the team retains the services of Tito Rabat as his teammate.

Abraham has had a difficult season so far on the GP16 bike, thanks in part to what is acknowledged as a hard to ride machine. Designed to use Ducati’s revolutionary winglets only to lose them thanks to rule changes, Abraham will be hoping that the move to GP18 machinery will allow him to return to his more competitive form of 2017.

“I’m very happy to continue in MotoGP next year and would like to thanks for this opportunity to Reale Avintia Racing Team. We signed in Silverstone because it was very important for me to finalise every detail of the contract in order to get competitive machinery. This worked out also thanks to a big help of Luigi Dall’Igna and Paolo Ciabatti from Ducati factory. The important part is, that it will be Ducati GP18 with the newest specification, which has good results from this season. Thanks to that I believe, that we will be able to make some really good results and I am already very excited about the next season.”

The move to GP18 machinery comes as the Aspar squad leaves the grid for next season, with two bikes less on the grid believed to have convinced Ducati to only supply two specifications of bike and not the current three.

Abraham’s signing looks set to leave rookie Simeon without a ride for next year, with the Belgian believed to currently be in talks with a number of teams in the support classes including in the new MotoE electric series.