Michael Ruben Rinaldi set for Motocorsa World Superbike seat

Rinaldi had been left searching for alternative employment when Ducati made the decision to promote Nicolo Bulega directly from World Supersport to its works WSBK team, where he will join Alvaro Bautista.

It had been thought that Rinaldi was holding out to see whether a space would open up at Honda amid the uncertainty regarding Marc Marquez's 2024 plans, which were only resolved earlier this month with confirmation of his switch to Gresini Ducati.

Current Honda WSBK racer Iker Lecuona had been viewed as a strong candidate to move to MotoGP in the event Marquez decided to make the move.

However, the Japanese marque ultimately elected to keep Lecuona in WSBK, announcing two-year contract extensions for both he and Xavi Vierge on Thursday ahead of this weekend's Jerez finale.

That left Rinaldi having to look elsewhere, and the Italian is now understood to have an agreement in place to join Motocorsa in 2024 to replace Kawasaki-bound Axel Bassani.

"The situation is clear, but we have agreed with the new team not to announce anything before the end of the final race on Sunday," Rinaldi told the official WSBK website. "We will make an announcement on Monday."

 

The news of Rinaldi's impending switch to Motocorsa comes as bad news for Loris Baz and Philipp Oettl, both of whom had appeared to be in contention to ride for the one-bike Italian squad.

Motocorsa boss Lorenzo Mauri had previously revealed plans to try out two unnamed riders, believed to be Baz and Oettl, in post-season testing at Jerez before making a decision on Bassani's replacement.

Baz has lost his ride at the Bonovo BMW squad to Scott Redding, while Oettl has been ousted at the Go Eleven Ducati squad in favour of ex-MotoGP racer Andrea Iannone.

Both Baz and Oettl now face uncertain futures, although the latter has also been linked to the MIE Honda team.