Main content | back to top
WSBK Team
Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio complete a strong World Superbike team for Ducati Corse, aboard the all new Ducati 1198.
Rider, Ducati Corse
Noriyuki Haga, Ducati Rider 2009
33-year-old Noriyuki Haga, also known as “Nitro-Nori”, came into the public eye on an international scale when he won the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race in 1996 alongside American rider Colin Edwards. In that same year he scored his first World Superbike podium finish, when he accepted a wild-card ride at Sugo, his home track. The following year he triumphed in the Japanese Superbike Championship to take that title, as well as achieving four top-five finishes in the World Superbike Championship while substituting for an injured Edwards.
In 1998, Noriyuki turned his attention to racing full-time in the World Superbike class, adopting the number 41 that he has used ever since. In 2001 and 2003 Noriyuki moved across to the MotoGP series, returning to World Superbikes in 2004. He won six of the season’s races, before eventually finishing third in the standings. This performance was repeated in 2005, this time riding for Yamaha's factory team, with ten podium places, and again in 2006 after scoring eleven podium finishes.
2007 was the closest World Superbike Championship finish to date, a year in which Noriyuki clocked up six race wins and fifteen podium places. Despite all this, he still had to settle for second place, just two points behind title winner James Toseland. In 2008 Noriyuki closed another successful season in third position.
Noriyuki replaces the now retired Troy Bayliss in the Ducati Xerox Team in 2009 and is hungry for a championship title, having finished second or third in the standings for the last five years.
Rider, Ducati Corse
Michel Fabrizio, Ducati Rider 2009
Rome-born Michel Fabrizio, aged 24, continues with the Ducati Xerox Team for a second consecutive season in 2009 and looks to improve on his eighth place result in the 2008 Superbike championship standings.
Michel began racing seriously in 1999 at the age of 15, when he took part in the Honda Trophy events and was almost immediately on the podium after just two races. The next couple of years saw Michel emerge with a series of wins and titles in the Coppa Italia (2000) and Challenge Aprilia, Supercampione and Sport Production categories (2001) before moving on to the World 125 GP category in 2002.
Following stints riding in European Superstock, MotoGP and World Supersport, Michel moved to the World Superbike class in 2006. Michel rode the Honda CBR 1000RR as part of the DFX Corse team, where he then remained for the 2007 season, finishing both seasons in eleventh position.
In 2008, his debut season with the Ducati Xerox Team, Michel was on board the Ducati 1098 F08 for the first time. In what was his best World Superbike season yet, Michel was regularly one of the front-runners and achieved seven podium finishes. He concluded the championship in eighth position and will ride for the Ducati Xerox factory squad once again in 2009, confident that it will be his best year yet.