Italian veteran Loris Capirossi has officially been confirmed for Pramac Racing in a return to Ducati for the 2011 MotoGP World Championship season.

Capirossi will return to Ducati for the first time since 2007, putting a frustrating three years with Suzuki behind him and hoping for a strong result next season.

“This return on a Ducati bike make me feel like a child – I do not feel my 37 years!” Capirossi said. “I have a great desire to start this new adventure, I’m enormously pleased about this new agreement that was reached with the Pramac Racing Team, this will allow me to ride and be part of an Italian team.

“I would like to thank the team principal of the Pramac Racing Team, Paolo Campinoti, for giving me this great opportunity and for the confidence placed in me. I’ll find again the Ducati, with whom I had very good results over the past years and that I was able to develop in the 2007, this is an unique sensation for me.

“I thank Suzuki for the years we spent together and thanks also to the excellent relationship maintained with them, they had give me the possibility to race with my new team since Valencia’s test of next month.”

Considered one of the icons of the MotoGP World Championship in which he has regularly taken part from more than 20 years, Capirossi has conteded 313 GPs to date.

In his long career, the Italian rider has won 29 grands prix and has had 99 podiums. He also has won three world championship – two in the 125cc class, in which he holds the record of youngest rider to conquer a world championship, and one in the 250cc category.

“We are very pleased to have closed an agreement with one of the most experienced riders and one of the most titled of the current MotoGP World Championship,” Paolo Campinoti, Pramac Racing Team principal, said. “The deal between us was very simple because Pramac Racing Team, and him, always aim to try to fight for important results.

“We do not need to talk about Loris, we all know him, we know his value and we are sure that thanks to his quality, we’ll have fun next year on all the tracks, taking also some satisfaction. With Loris we will celebrate our 10th anniversary in the world championship and this is a real honor for us.

“We know that Loris had conquer in his career 99 podiums and we hope to achieve together the triple digits. I would like to thank our partners who have welcomed our choice and we hope that Loris’s and Pramac Racing Team fans will follow us with passion during next season.”