Having lost an opportunity to sign Marco Melandri for 2017, Manuel Puccetti has confirmed to WorldSBK.com that his new rider target is Davide Giugliano.

Kawasaki Puccetti Racing is the reigning World Champion team in the FIM Supersport World Championship and leads the current title race with Kenan Sofuoglu. Next season, the outfit will make its World Superbike class debut.

“For 2017 our plan is to have one rider in World Superbike, two in World Supersport and one in Superstock 1000,” Puccetti stated during a telephone conversation with WorldSBK.com on Wednesday.

“For sure, we would race with only one rider in World Superbike, not two. It is a very, very big job and we would want to do it properly, so for the first season we would prefer to do it with just one rider.

“After trying very, very hard to sign Marco Melandri, he has decided to go elsewhere (joining Chaz Davies at Aruba.it Racing – Ducati). At Puccetti we have an Italian sponsor and so we would need an Italian name to race our bike.

“I can confirm that we are talking with Davide Giugliano and he is now our priority. We are trying to put a deal together. We want a top Italian rider. If not, we would race our Superbike with Randy Krummenacher or another rider. We intend to announce our plans for the World Supersport project by the end of August.” 

Puccetti goes on to clarify his rider situation for the other WorldSBK categories:

“We have (Turkish riders) Kenan Sofuoglu for World Supersport and Toprak Razgatlioglu for Superstock 1000. They are both confirmed. Alongside Kenan will be another rider; we will be able to announce that rider in September.”

Should Giugliano ride a Superbike for Puccetti, this would leave Randy Krummenacher in the running to continue riding alongside Sofuoglu in World Supersport. However, the Swiss will have competition from both Axel Bassani and Alessandro Zaccone – the Italian 17-year-olds currently competing for San Carlo Team Italia, a Puccetti-run FIM Europe Supersport Cup squad but a team which could be discontinued at the end of 2016.

“We are of course talking with Randy for World Supersport, but also our two Italian youngsters,” Puccetti continues. “We are working alongside the Italian federation and we believe we will be able to offer one of those two kids the opportunity to race full-time alongside Kenan Sofuoglu. This is one option and Randy is the other option. We will be able to confirm our World Supersport decision in September. Right now, the main goal is to sign our World Superbike rider.”

The MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship is currently in the middle of a European summer break, which will end with the Pirelli German Round at the Lausitzring on the weekend of 16-18 September.