The late arrival
Age 32 Bike Ducati Panigale V4 R Eugene Laverty was left high and dry at the end of last year but has been thrown a lifeline by Ducati and the GoEleven team. It didn’t take long for the partnership to bond but they’re already on a hunt for rear-end grip.
It’s five years since Laverty last won a race, the 2014 opener in Australia for Suzuki. It’s a fact he finds hard to swallow, although he did spend two years in MotoGP and endured a 2018 crash which almost killed him. So 2019 brings a fresh start. “After SMR pulled the rug from under our feet, I’m very relieved to be back and very happy with GoEleven,” he says. “I spent the winter making phone calls. Some riders expect to be called but that’s their egos, which stops them realising they are just a number. You’ve got to fight for everything you’ve got. We managed to pull something out of our ass at the last minute.
“We have made a lot of progress already, but not enough. We need to absorb bumps better and improve rear grip, that’s the focus for the Phillip Island test.” Laverty’s bump-absorbing will be done with Bitubo, which the GoEleven team continues to prefer, but it means he’ll have two engineers at his disposal.