Niccolo Canepa began his racing career in the Italian minibike championship at age eleven, in 600 Superstock at age 14. In 2006 the Genoa-born rider finished second in the European Superstock Championship with the Ducati Xerox Junior Team, despite missing the final races due to injury. He took the title victory in the FIM Superstock 1000 Superstock Cup on a Ducati then next year, and Canepa's relationship with the factory continued into 2008, when he took over from Shinichi Ito as a factory test rider while competing in World Superbike as a wildcard three times. He joined the MotoGP™ paddock fulltime for one year with Pramac Ducati in 2009 and showed good consistency before a crash in a practice at Phillip Island put him out of the final three races. He then had a difficult Moto2™ campaign in 2010, before competing in CIV STK and STK1000 in 2011. In STK1000 he took three podiums and then moved to WorldSBK for 2012, taking a number of top ten results. In 2013, he came second overall in STK1000 and took six podiums, as well as racing in the CIV Superbike Championship and putting in three appearances in WorldSBK. 2014 saw Canepa the second overall of the EVO runners in WorldSBK, before a year at Grillini in 2015 that saw Canepa a consistent scorer once again. 2016 was a busy year. Canepa did replacement rides in WorldSBK and STK1000 with Yamaha, taking a podium in the latter, and was a test rider. He also took three podiums in four CIV Superbike races, and began competing in the FIM Endurance World Championship. He won that over the 2016-2017 season with GMT94, and in 2018 he made four appearances in WorldSBK with Pata Yamaha as he continued on testing duty. Canepa returned to the MotoGP™ paddock in MotoE™ in 2019, racing with the LCR E-Team, earning a best finish of P4. Can the Italian go at least one better in 2020 as he and the team work together for a second year running?