How Ducati superbike star Nicolo Bulega fared in his first two MotoGP races

Fresh off finishing runner-up in the 2025 World Superbike Championship, Nicolo Bulega got an early opportunity to sample MotoGP machinery as he joined the factory Ducati team for the Portuguese and Valencia grands prix.

Substituting for world champion Marc Marquez, whose season was curtailed by an arm injury in Indonesia, Bulega finished both races in 15th place. Considering these were the only points scored by the title-winning team in Sunday races since Marquez’s departure, his debut outings can be considered positive. 

Still, there are several nuances behind those results that are worth considering, even if they don’t take anything away from Bulega’s strong showing.

Preparations

Bulega could have made his MotoGP debut as early as October’s Malaysian Grand Prix, which followed a week after the WSBK season finale at Jerez. But the Italian didn’t want to enter a race weekend without having ridden a MotoGP bike, and requested Ducati to arrange a test for him.

Ducati booked Jerez for two days to allow him to get accustomed to the GP25 before calling him up for the Portuguese GP. Unfortunately for him, the first day of the test was a complete wash out, and he managed only 30 laps on the second day as the track still had wet patches. Nevertheless, it was valuable mileage for the 26-year-old, and meant he didn’t go to Portimao completely blind.

Nicolo Bulega, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

The challenge 

Bulega arrived feeling more prepared for MotoGP than a typical Moto2 graduate, given that the Ducati Panigale V4 R he raced in WSBK is significantly more physically demanding. But while a MotoGP prototype isn’t dramatically quicker than a superbike, the way it’s ridden is very different – and that required rapid adaptation.

Between adapting to carbon brakes, understanding a complex electronics package and trading his familiar Pirellis for Michelins, Bulega had plenty to contend with in his first grand prix weekend on the Desmosedici.

But the area where he struggled the most initially was under braking, a product of both the switch to carbon discs and the characteristics of Michelin tyres. Bulega was trying to stop the GP25 as he would on a superbike, but on Michelin fronts, braking too hard at the wrong moment almost guarantees losing the front.

Portimao debut

For this reason, he couldn’t ride naturally in his first MotoGP weekend, with the Michelin tyres simply not giving him the confidence needed to push. He had to keep reminding himself not to brake as he would on a superbike, and reprogramming those habits was anything but easy.

After qualifying 18th on the grid following a mistake on his final flying lap, Bulega got it all wrong on lap 4 and he crashed out of the sprint.

But this early exit was an important lesson for the Italian, and he came back much stronger on Sunday to bag a solitary point. In doing so, he outperformed both Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savadori and LCR rookie Somkiat Chantra, and justified Ducati’s decision to choose him over the dependable Michele Pirro.

Valencia progress

Nicolo Bulega, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

Valencia presented a different kind of challenge. Unlike Portimao, Circuit Ricardo Tormo is not present on the WSBK calendar, and Bulega hadn’t raced there since 2021 in Moto2. That meant he lacked recent track knowledge, but also avoided carrying WSBK-specific references that might have made the MotoGP adaptation trickier.

While still not fully comfortable with the GP25, Bulega admitted he was now quick in some areas, while still lagging behind in others. He also improved his performance on braking, but felt he was still losing too much time mid-corner and exiting each turn.

This progress was evident on the timesheets as he managed to lap within 1.250s of polesitter Marco Bezzecchi in qualifying, having been over two seconds off the pace in Portimao the previous week. Unfortunately for him, the field was too closely packed and he ended up 22nd on the grid, only ahead of Yamaha tester Augusto Fernandez and Chantra’s Honda.

On Saturday, he maximised the situation in the sprint, overtaking several full-time riders to finish in 16th place, just seven tenths behind the Yamaha of Alex Rins and three seconds off team-mate Francesco Bagnaia.

He was expected to carry this momentum into Sunday, but like Fabio Quartararo and Bezzecchi earlier in the weekend, he had trouble disengaging the holeshot device at the start. This dropped him all the way to 22nd place on the opening lap, with just Franco Morbidelli – who started from the pits after his mishap on the grid – running behind him.

“In the warm-up, we made a change to the bike that I liked,” he explained. “I immediately felt better, I had more grip right away. 

“But this afternoon, I made a huge mess at the start. Unfortunately, the front fork [device] didn’t come off, and I rode all the way to Turn 5 with the front fork lowered and ended up last.”

Nicolo Bulega, Ducati Team

Photo by: Jose Breton – Pics Action – NurPhoto – Getty Images

Despite the early setback, Bulega managed to pass Jorge Martin, Fernandez and Chantra in the early stages of the race and benefitted from retirements ahead of him to claim yet another point in 15th place.

“The bottom line was that without ever having ridden the bike, while everyone else already has twenty races under their belt, and everyone else is incredibly strong, it was foolish to think I could do more,” he summed up.

“So, I’m pretty happy. I hope that by getting a little more on top of the bike, I can understand many more of today’s MotoGP mechanisms.”

Bulega also found it comforting to hear that three-time WSBK champion Toprak Razgatlioglu suffered from the same issues when the Turkish rider sampled the V4-powered Yamaha M1 in a private test at Aragon.

For Bulega, it was proof that the problems that plagued him were almost entirely down to the switch in machinery, rather than any personal shortcomings.

Nicolo Bulega’s results

What lies ahead

At the very least, the 26-year-old gained experience of two grands prix, which would come in handy when he starts his role as Ducati’s test rider in MotoGP.

Despite a nightmare previous stint in the grand prix paddock in Moto2, Bulega harbours hope of moving to MotoGP in 2027, when Pirelli replaces Michelin as the official tyre supplier and new regulations bring MotoGP prototypes closer to superbikes. Bulega has always been vocal about his preference for Pirelli tyres, so his experience could prove valuable to Ducati as it develops a bike for the next-gen rules.

But even as his MotoGP involvement grows, his priority remains WSBK. If he wants to earn a MotoGP seat, results in WSBK will be just as important as adapting to grand prix machinery. With Razgatlioglu leaving WSBK to move to Pramac Yamaha next year, Ducati must be expecting Bulega to win the title at the third time of asking. Should he succeed, he could put himself in contention for a satellite Ducati MotoGP seat in 2027.

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– The Motorsport.com Team