The 2018 WorldSSP300 Champion will return to Moto3™ this season after five years of competing in WorldSSP300

After five seasons, 50 races, 12 podiums, seven wins and three pole positions, Ana Carrasco will leave the FIM Supersport 300 World Championship as she returns to the Moto3™ paddock. The change will mean Carrasco returns to the Championship where she made her debut on the world stage in 2013 and competed in until 2015.

Carrasco made her WorldSSP300 debut in 2017 and won one race in her first season on her way to eighth in the Championship. 2018 would prove to be the Spaniard’s year as she claimed the title by a single point ahead of compatriot Mika Perez. She fought again for the title in 2019, looking to make it back-to-back Championships, but finished in third place behind Moto2™-bound Manuel Gonzalez and Scott Deroue.

In the 2020 season, Carrasco was fighting at the front but a testing injury at Estoril left her with a double vertebrae injury that required surgery, forcing her out of the second half of the campaign. Despite that, she finished eighth in the Championship with three podiums and one win to her name. She returned in 2021 for the full season but, despite claiming a dramatic last-corner win at Misano, finished in 16th place in the standings.

After her success in the paddock, including becoming the first-ever female motorcycling World Champion, Carrasco said at a two-day Jerez test, where she was testing a WorldSSP machine for the first time, that it would be “difficult” if she did have to leave the WorldSBK paddock after spending the last five years competing for World Championships.

Carrasco, at the test, said:

“For sure, if one day if I have to leave this paddock, it will be difficult. For me, the WorldSBK paddock is like my house. For many years, I was here. Also, for me, I think I’m the rider who I am because of WorldSBK. If I stay here or if I go out, for sure the WorldSBK paddock will be my home forever.”

Discussing her move to Moto3™ and thanking Kawasaki, Carrasco said:

“Racing is tough, not just on track where people see but also at times like this when you have to make tough decisions. My ambition is always to grow as a rider, to set myself new goals that other’s see as impossible and to achieve them.  When my parents bought me my first minibike and then I started racing of course my dream was like any rider “one day I want to be a World Champion”. This I achieved in 2018 and even today that feeling is magical; but anyone that understands racing will know that every racer needs to push, to be ambitious and to test themselves again and again.

“This opportunity to ride in Moto3™ is a logical step in my mind even if the emotional step is hard. I would like to thank everyone at Kawasaki who truly made me feel part of a racing family, of course to my pit crews and team staff across these years who gave me the best machinery to compete on plus Provec who created a professional environment that was just incredible. Finally, I must say a special thanks to Eliseo Escamez, Alvar Garriga, the Roda brothers and all Provec team members, who were always there for me with friendly help and advice and truly believed in me and, of course, my parents who started this amazing journey. I thank all of you and hope you understand you all played a part in making me the rider and person I am. I hope I can repay your kindness with a second World Championship. Thank you.”

Guim Roda, Team Manager at Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK and co-owner of Provec Racing, whose banner Carrasco raced under and won the 2018 title with, said:

“Ana’s move to Moto3™ is a fitting end to a journey we started together in 2018. We are so proud to be part of the history now, and a Kawasaki Ninja will forever be recognised as the first ever bike that powered a woman to an FIM Motorcycle Open Championship. In 2018 she won the Championship, which was magical year, but I think 2019 and 2020 were when she performed the best. In 2019 she fought every race just losing second position in Championship on the last lap of the last race. In 2020 she pushed for the title again before her big crash in Estoril that was very nearly life changing – but Ana fought back to health as only she can. Across all this time David Salom was at her side as Team Manager guiding and advising her and he should be singled out for special praise. In 2021 she came back with no time to make winter testing properly due to her recovery process and was able to win in Misano showing she had lost none of her speed.  Moto3™ opens the door to new challenges and motivations. We are sure she will recover the winning edge she showed many times. On behalf of in all in the Kawasaki family we wish Ana all the best and hope she can continue making history motivating women and demonstrating that they deserve the same opportunities in life as men.”