Carlos Checa‘s 2013 season is over.
The former World Superbike champion’s year has been marred by poor results, numerous injuries and confidence sapping crashes, and his latest crash during FP1 at Istanbul Park, has left him with a fractured hip, along with a chest contusion, and afracture to his left scaphoid, that were initially diagnosed.
The Spaniard posted the news of his new phystical status on Twitter : “Istanbul crash more serious than I thought, hip fracture.
Tomorrow morning dr will apply a surgery intervention, I can’t finish the season.
“After 11 rounds, and only 15 races contested out of 21 (Race 2 at Moscow was cancelled after Antonelli’s death) Checa currently lies 14th in the standings and this new injury will leave the beleaguered Alstare Ducati team with only one rider to finish the season, unless Ducati is willing to replace Checa with another rider.
The choices could fall on Alex de Angelis who was offered Ben Spies ride in MotoGP, but turned them down when they wouldn’t offer him a contract for 2014 (Yonny Hernandez got the replacement card) or they could offer it to former Ducati rider Michel Fabrizio, who is out of a job after he was canned by Red Devils Roma team and replaced Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea in Turkey.
Regarding Checa‘s future, his manager Alberto Vergani had already said that his client would be leaving Ducati at the end of the season and that the only two options available were with Kawasaki and if that deal fell through then Checa would seriously consider retirement.