Tito Rabat and Michael Ruben Rinaldi both failed to succeed with the Yamaha Motoxracing Team in the 2025 season.

The Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team entered the 2025 season with a two-rider team, with World Superbike rookie, Bahattin Sofuoglu, and Tito Rabat.

Despite a positive year for Turkish rider Sofuoglu, the Italian team struggled with their second rider during the 2025 season.

After only five rounds together, Rabat and Motoxracing decided to part ways after the Czech Republic World Superbike Round. When asked about parting ways with Rabat, the Team Owner believed Rabat lacked 'determination'.

"All in all, the glass is half full," Team Owner, Sandro Carusi, told Corsedimoto.

"There were various problems, but we managed to promote and develop a young rider like Bahattin Sofouglu. At the end of the season, we reached an agreement with Yamaha to continue supporting him.

"While everything went well with our rookie, this wasn’t the case with Tito Rabat.

"The Spanish rider had reached the end of his career and no longer had the necessary drive and determination: he never took risks, but simply focused on participating."

Why did they not continue with Michael Ruben Rinaldi?

Carusi went on to explain why Rabat's replacement, Michael Ruben Rinaldi, was unable to succeed with the Yamaha R1 in the second half of the season.

"Rabat was replaced by Michael Ruben Rinaldi, and we got along much better with him; we built an excellent relationship. However, when he realised that he couldn’t achieve any significant results with our bike, he didn’t want to force anything.

"That was understandable: he has a background as a factory rider and had to compete with a purely private machine."