The Angel Nieto Team has completed its line-up for the 2019 Moto2™ World Championship with the signing of Xavi Cardelús, who will ride a KTM machine in his first full season at this level. The Andorran rider joins the Angel Nieto Team on their return to the intermediate category after a four-year absence, alongside British rider Jake Dixon.
Cardelus has made nine appearances in the Moto2™ World Championship this year, seven of which came as wildcards before joining another team as a replacement rider for the remainder of the season at Aragón, meaning that he will have knowledge of most of the circuits ahead of his full rookie season in 2019.
Cardelus, 20, has been competing in the Moto2™ European Championship since 2015 and is currently fighting for a top ten position. In 2017 he contested several rounds of the World Supersport Championship, scoring points at Motorland and Qatar. Prior to that he competed in the Moto3 class of the FIM CEV Repsol and other regional championships.
Xavi Cardelus: “I am very grateful to the Angel Nieto Team and Jorge Martinez “Aspar” for this fantastic opportunity to race with them in the Moto2™ World Championship in 2019. This has been a good learning year for me, contesting a few rounds as a wildcard and now ending the season with the Marinelli Snipers team. I am growing as a rider and gathering experience, and the step up to being a full-time rider next season, in such a prestigious and high-level team as the Angel Nieto Team, means a huge step up in my career and I plan to pay them back with hard work. With the arrival of the new 765cc engines it is also a new era for the series and I think it should suit my riding style. I am going to give it my very best to get up to the same level as this great team.”
Jorge Martínez “Aspar”: “We are going back to the intermediate category, which has given us so many great memories in the past, with a line-up of young riders that we hope to grow with. Xavi Cardelus has an exciting future ahead and after a year of getting to know the World Championship circuits, he will now have a full season with the Ángel Nieto Team. He makes the move at the same time as the switch to Triumph engines, which will equal the category out again and could prove to be a great advantage for us.”