MotoGP boss Carmelo Ezpeleta has revealed he pushed for Alvaro Bautista to move to WorldSBK and the Spaniard now earns more cash even though it is Dorna's second-class championship.

Bautista was at the bottom of the list for the private MotoGP teams in 2018 but Ezpeleta saw an opportunity for the Spaniard to move into the Superbike class with Ducati.

"Two years ago, Bautista was about to retire and I advised him to go to WorldSBK," said Ezpeleta.

He wasn't convinced at the beginning and now he earns more than if he had stayed in a private team in MotoGP. The riders should start thinking about it."

Despite the public's opinion that Ezpeleta sees WorldSBK as MotoGP's case of hemorrhoids, the Catalan says he thinks the championship is necessary.

"There is a need for motorcycle racing derived from the street. If it were up to me, they would be even more standard because they already have incredible performance.

Ezpeleta was talking to our colleague Paolo Scalers at GPOne.com