Ducati Roma Team was born on the ashes of Supersonic Racing and the new World Superbike team will be fielding former MotoGP, Moto2 rider, Superstock 1000 FIM Cup rider Niccolò Canepa in the 2012 Superbike championship.
Canepa won the 2007 Superstock championship and finished fifth overall in 2011, after switching during the season from the Kawasaki GoEleven team to the Lazio Motorsport Ducati squad.
The Italian spent the last three days of October at the Misano Adriatico circuit familiarizing with the Ducati 1098R Superbike and despite unfavourably cold weather conditions, he reported that he was able to lap under the 1.
37 barrier several times on hard race tires.
The team worked on general set-up, suspensions, electronics and the ride-by-wire system which Canepa has already used in 2008 when he wildcarded for the now defunct Ducati Xerox factory at Brno (13th and DNF) and when he rode for MotoGP Pramac Ducati team in 2009.