Michael Ruben Rinaldi “felt” Yamaha’s “will to win” when signing GMT94 WorldSSP deal

Michael Ruben Rinaldi will move to the GMT94 Yamaha team in the WorldSSP class in 2025, having been won over by Yamaha’s “will to win”.

Rinaldi has been in WorldSBK since 2018 when he debuted for the Aruba.it Racing Junior team, and spent his entire WorldSBK career with Ducati.

His 2025 venture into WorldSSP will be his first into the middleweight production derivative class, though, having moved to WorldSBK straight from Superstock 1000, which he won in 2017.

“For sure today is a big announcement for my career,” Rinaldi told WorldSBK.com on the announcement of his deal with GMT94 Yamaha.

“After many years in the World Superbike Championship with Ducati, now it’s time for a new chapter of my life and of my career, especially, which is Yamaha: I will be a Yamaha rider inside GMT94 for defending blue colours in [WorldSSP].

“The project is new, the bike is new, and I decided to accept this challenge because I truly believe that Yamaha, this time, has arrived to face and battle the Ducatis and the top machines.

“They decided to replace the R6 with the R9, and since the first meeting with them I felt their will to win and I accepted that challenge. For sure, I can’t wait to jump on the bike and see how it is.”

Rinaldi will not be able to ride at the upcoming WorldSSP test at Cremona Circuit because he and Yamaha “didn’t find an agreement with my old team [Motocorsa], so I cannot ride the bike until next year,” he said.

However, Rinaldi is enthused by the bike, and expects that his arrival to it from WorldSBK will help in terms of adaptation.

“For sure the work they’ve [Yamaha] done is for catching the other manufacturers,” Rinaldi said.

“But also I spoke with Niccolo [Canepa] and we think that coming from Superbike you don’t have to adapt too much the riding style and that can be good for us.”