Marc Marquez MotoGP fill-in “very good opportunity” for Nicolo Bulega

Reigning WorldSBK Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu has endorsed his 2025 rival, Nicolo Bulega, to replace Marc Marquez in the final races of the 2025 MotoGP season.

Bulega and Razgatlioglu will face off this weekend (17–19 October) in a final round title decider in World Superbike, although BMW’s Razgatlioglu is the clear favourite with a 39-point lead over the Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider.

At the same time, MotoGP is in Australia, but recently crowned 2025 World Champion Marc Marquez is absent after suffering a shoulder injury in his crash with Marco Bezzecchi at the Indonesian Grand Prix two weeks ago.

Both in Australia and at the Malaysian Grand Prix next week Marquez will be replaced by Ducati’s MotoGP test rider Michele Pirro, but Bulega could be drafted into the Ducati Lenovo Team at the penultimate round of the season in Portugal on Marquez’s side of the garage.

This was confirmed by Ducati Corse Sporting Director Mauro Grassilli on Friday in Australia and, for Razgatlioglu, the choice of Bulega would be a good one for both the Italian rider and the Bologna brand.

“Today I speak with my crew chief, with Phil [Marron], about this,” Toprak Razgatlioglu told the pre-event press conference in Jerez when asked about Bulega’s possibilities of replacing Marquez in the final races of the season.

“I think it’s a very good opportunity and I hope Ducati do this because I respect him [Bulega].

“He did an incredible job this year. He’s [improved a lot], a really fast rider, I think it’s a good opportunity for him with the MotoGP bike. I hope I see him in some races.”

Razgatlioglu would also like to see Bulega in MotoGP full-time in the future.

“In the future, in MotoGP, maybe he is coming in 2027,” Razgatlioglu said.

“I hope, because he is enough for MotoGP, he is a really fast rider. 

“If Ducati takes him to MotoGP I think it’s a good move and I hope in the future we are again fighting with him in MotoGP. I hope.”

Bulega: “It could be very good”

Nicolo Bulega himself is, as you might expect for a rider facing the prospect of a MotoGP debut on the World Champion’s bike, of a similar opinion to Razgatlioglu, but he is also wary of rushing into it.

“I’m thinking it could be very good,” Bulega said during the Jerez pre-event press conference.

“But everybody would like to go on that bike because [Marc] Marquez’s bike is– everybody wants to go there. Me too. 

“But I think you have to do [by] doing a good step, like I did when I was in Supersport: I was racing in Supersport and Ducati let me ride sometimes the Ducati Superbike and then when I arrived to Superbike I was ready to race. 

“So, for me the most important is not going to MotoGP just because I can say I ride a MotoGP bike. 

“If I have to go to MotoGP, I would like to make the things good and not be slow because at the end everybody says Superbike riders are slow. So, I don’t want this.”

Bulega is also uncertain of his future prospects of moving to MotoGP full-time although he feels that he has the potential to prove next year that he deserves a seat for 2027.

“For the moment, it’s very early to say because we are talking about two years [from now],” he said.

“It’s sure that he [Razgatlioglu] is going to MotoGP. Me? no. I’m sure that I will race in Superbike. 

“So, if next year I will be fast enough and Ducati think I can go to MotoGP in 2027, could be really good to fight again with him.”