To be honest, we were all waiting just for the official statement as long as everything was almost done, especially after Scott Redding announced to be 2020 teammate of Chaz Davies in Ducati concerning Superbike. Alvaro Bautista finally signs with Honda for next year, a really big move considering what the Spaniard did at the start of the season where it was a total domination with former MotoGP rider who was able to conquer first 11 races out of 11.

Despite this, something went wrong during the season with Alvaro who started losing points on Jonathan Rea due to crashes and mistakes that gave to reigning World Champion the possibility to come back and even getting Championship lead back and not only as long as Kawasaki rider has a consistent margin on his rival now for the World Title.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">🔥Saving the best until last…<br><br>Enjoy the closest finish of the 2019 WorldSBK season so far after an INCREDIBLE final lap at Portimao in Race 2!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PRTWorldSBK?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PRTWorldSBK</a>🇵🇹 <a href="https://t.co/kNM2cMnFuY">pic.twitter.com/kNM2cMnFuY</a></p>&mdash; WorldSBK (@WorldSBK) <a href="https://twitter.com/WorldSBK/status/1171009710616731649?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 9, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Things were not so great even between Bautista and the team, that is why negotiation with Honda started, with Japanese crew that wants to be again on top even on World Superbike with a good project that needed a top rider. Honda found it in Alvaro Bautista, who accepted the challenge for next year and will try to bring Honda on top for another time.

“We are really happy to have Alvaro Bautista in our project for next year”, said Yoshishige Nomura, HRC president, that also added: “That means our will to compete for the top in every competition is really high and we want to fight to obtain best results searching also the best innovation to give to our followers fun and happiness”.

“Alvaro is a really fast rider and he showed us not only this year but also when he was riding in MotoGP. We are confident that he will give us a big contribute to develop our project in the fantastic world of Superbike”, ended Nomura.

Alvaro had to say something as well: “It was not an easy decision as long as my first year with Ducati was a really positive one, especially in the first part of the season where I won a lot of races. I am really happy despite a not so well second part of what we did with Ducati in Superbike, I can only say good things about it. Ducati is a fantastic team, but you also want new challenges and motivation. I believe that HRC offered me a really good project where I will start as their main ride”