Bulega and Foti on their feelings with the new bike: "We have a lot of work to do, but the impression was very positive"
The 2025 runner-up posted very strong times across both days of testing at Jerez, and with tuning having only just begun, Ducati may be creating a monster for 2026
After having been bested in back-to-back years in the Riders’ Championship, Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) and his factory Ducati team are rolling up their sleeves and pushing all their chips forward in 2026. Propelling the 2025 runner-up forward into the 2026 season, the #11 and his new teammate, Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati), will be powered by an all-new 2026 Ducati Panigale V4 R bike. If the results from the most recent Jerez test are anything to go by, the machine and its pair of riders will be quite the force to be reckoned with.
DIGGING DEEPER: “Aragon and Misano were just shakedowns, now we need to start to understand the bike and come to know its secrets”
Their defeats in 2024 and 2025 at the hands of Toprak Razgatluoglu on his BMW machinery are fresh in the minds of those at Ducati. Still, however, looking forward, their engineers' hard work is coming to fruition as the 2026 model of their Panigale V4 R has looked very impressive in its first showing on track, with the skilful piloting of their riders, it took them to first and third on the timesheets.
On his riders’ debut with the new bike, Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Team Manager Serafino Foti said: “The first touch with the bike was ok, Nicolo is quite happy. Of course, it was the first real test, and we have a lot of work to do, but the impression was very positive. The base is more or less last year’s bike, but, of course, I hope that we can improve it a bit. We don’t really know, though, our competitors will be strong, like BMW of course. Our target is still the same; we lost the Championship by 13 points in 2025, but our goal is to fight for the title. I think that we can win the Championship next year. Nicolo likes some areas of the bike but doesn’t like everything. As I said, it’s just the first touch. In Aragon and Misano were just shakedowns, now we need to start to understand the bike and come to know its secrets.”
ADAPTING TO THE BIKE: “I had to change my riding style a bit. It’s important we adapt and understand what we have to do differently to get the maximum”
Bulega will arrive to Phillip Island in 2026 with a target on his back as the rider to beat. He was the only rider who could keep up with Razgatlioglu last season. In addition to Ducati’s usual high expectations for their riders, Bulega has shown that on his day, he can be untouchable. Now, with the addition of their new bike, the sky is the limit for the Italian #11 if he and his team can iron out all the bike’s details by the start of the season.
On his second day with the 2026 bike at the Jerez test, Bulega said: “It was quite a good half day, I think we improved a bit from yesterday, because we had one more night of experience. I felt good from the first lap today and felt comfortable on Day 1 as well. We improved the turning a bit today, but I think we lost a little bit in how the bike brakes. In general, we improved significantly and collected a lot of data for this winter, which we can use to make further progress. We have to ride the bike a bit differently because the bike is quite different. I had to change my riding style a bit. It’s important we adapt and understand what we have to do differently to get the maximum.”
Relive Bulega’s red-hot rivalry with ‘El Turco’ last season with the WorldSBK VideoPass!
