Yari Montella can “help me keep the focus” - Danilo Petrucci

Danilo Petrucci and Yari Montella link up in the Barni Spark Ducati team for the 2025 WorldSBK season, which will be a year of firsts for both.

For Petrucci, who will take on his third season in WorldSBK next year, 2025 will be the first season he’s had a teammate in the Superbike class.

“I’m quite happy because having another rider, especially a fast one like Yari [Montella], in the garage is always a good thing,” Petrucci told WorldSBK.com, “especially because Yari is quite young and motivated.

“So, he can help me to keep the focus. For sure, I don’t know the area where we can improve on each other, but for sure he has a lot of speed and I can learn something immediately from him.”

On the other hand, Montella, who finished third in the 2024 Supersport World Championship with Barni, the chance to make his debut WorldSBK season with the Barni team and with a rider with the experience of Petrucci as teammate offers a clear opportunity to learn and develop - but that doesn't mean he doesn't see Petrucci as his rival.

“I hope that he could give me some ‘tricks’ of this category,” Montella told WorldSBK.com.

“But, really, I don’t know, because in these two years we were teammates, more or less, [but] we were also in two different categories, so we never worked with each other.

“For sure, I am always his rival and he is always my rival, but at the end I expect a great ambience in the team, in the box, because we are two great guys, I think.

“Also, in the team there is a great atmosphere that I think we don’t need to break.”