The Pedercini Kawasaki World Superbike team has parted ways with Alex De Angelis and has announced ex-Guandalini Yamaha rider Ricardo Russo as his replacement.
De Angelis moved to WorldSBK last season alongside the Ioda team he competed for in MotoGP in 2015.
The San Marinese rider enjoyed a strong debut campaign on the Aprilia, which included a podium in the second race in Germany.
A switch to the Pedercini squad for 2017 has proven less fruitful, however, with De Angelis failing to register a top 10 result in the opening half of the season and sitting 17th in the standings on 32 points as a consequence.
De Angelis’ replacement Russo had also struggled this season and was dropped by Guandalini ahead of the US round having only seen the chequered flag on five occasions.
“I’m very happy I found a new and important opportunity to show what I can do with a competitive bike as the one of Team Racing SC-Project,” said Russo.
“I want to thank everybody for believing in me, a special thanks to Lucio Pedercini, the whole team and Sergio Giordano that allowed me to have this great opportunity.
“I will do my best to be competitive from the start.”
Team boss Pedercini added: “After the resolution of the contract with Alex, I spoke with Riccardo, who in my opinion is a full character rider.
“He has grown professionally, with the desire of doing well and is willing to get out there and put himself into the hands of the team.
“The whole team will start working together with the rider straight away before Germany, where Riccardo will race for the first time on the Kawasaki ZX-10RR. I’m sure everybody will do their best.”
The 2017 WorldSBK season will resume after a seven-week break on August 18-20 at the Lausitzring in Germany.
