Red Bull Honda’s World Superbike operations manager Marco Chini says Davide Giugliano ‘deserves’ to be considered to partner Stefan Bradl after a positive Lausitzring test.
Giugliano was dropped by the factory Ducati WorldSBK team for this season after two mixed years with the Italian marque and found himself lining up in the British Superbike Championship with Tyco BMW.
However, the Italian parted ways with the Northern Irish outfit just after the summer break – citing a longer than expected recovery from a neck injury sustained at Brands Hatch as his reason – and has been scouring the WorldSBK paddock for a return ride.
Giugliano was brought in by Honda to partner test rider Michele Magnoni for two days of running at the Lausitzring in Germany in Bradl’s absence.
Bradl was due to travel to Japan to contest the Suzuka 8 hours endurance race with Honda, but was forced to pull out on Wednesday with an inner ear infection which has stopped him from flying.
The first day of running was hampered by poor weather but Honda were still able to complete 100 laps with both riders over the two days, testing various fairing and electronics changes, which led to genuine improvements to the troublesome Fireblade.
Having impressed Honda during the two-day test, as well as coming loaded with experience of various machinery, Giugliano has emerged as a favourite to see out the remainder of the season with the team.
“First of all, I would like to thank Michele Magnoni and Davide Giugliano for their professionalism and their availability to help us with the development work,” said Chini.
“The team continues to develop the bike one small step at a time.
“We can verify that Davide Giugliano is back on good form and his vast experience with production-based motorcycles was really useful to get a better understandings of the current level of the team’s CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2.
“Davide surely deserves to be considered among the number of riders who could race alongside Stefan Bradl in the remaining rounds of the season.”
Since the tragic death of Nicky Hayden just before the UK round of the series, Honda has run one bike out of respect for its late rider, but maintained that it would return to a two-bike squad.
At Laguns Seca just before the summer break, MotoAmerica rider Jake Gagne lined up alongside Bradl and took points from both races.
The 2017 World Superbike season resumes on August 18-20 at the Lausitzring. Kawasaki rider Jonthan Rea leads the championship by 59 points from team-mate Tom Sykes.
