Alvaro Bautista: Ducati “what I need to go fast” in WorldSBK 2026

Alvaro Bautista’s continuation with Ducati in the 2026 WorldSBK season was necessary, he thinks, if he is to contend for victories next year.

The Spanish rider will stay with the Italian brand with which he has taken all 63 of his WorldSBK race wins, but in the satellite Barni Spark team.

The two-time World Superbike Champion said that the move to Barni is something that offers him a good balance of the various aspects of racing, and also that he was helped to reach an agreement with both Barni and Ducati by Gigi Dall’Igna, General Manager of Ducati Corse.

“I knew that what I need to go fast and at least be sure that I can fight for good results, the target was to remain in Ducati,” Alvaro Bautista told WorldSBK.com.

“For sure, the options were to stay with Barni, but also in the last few weeks I had also the chance or the opportunity to stay in this team, with Aruba. But you have to put everything in balance and I decided to move to Barni because it was, for me, the more exciting proposal.

“But the thing that was clear was to race with Ducati.

“Also, I spoke a lot with Gigi [Dall’Igna], and I told to him ‘I want to race with Ducati because it’s the bike I feel I can show all my potential and use all my potential’.

“He agreed and he supported me from the first day, so it was important and we got it.”

Bautista added that it was important for him to have technical support from Ducati in the Italian satellite team.

“For sure, for him [Marco Barnabo, Barni Racing team owner] it’s not easy to have a top rider in the category and his target was to have the chance to give me the best to fight for the best,” he said.

“For sure, it’s not easy for a team like that, but we spoke a lot with Ducati and, at the end, I think we arrived to a really good compromise because I have all the support from Ducati for next year – with the bike, with the people working with me – so, at the end, I will have full factory support from Ducati.

“This was very important because, at the end, I don’t want to keep racing just for racing; if I want to keep racing it’s because I feel I can fight for wins and this is my target, and I think it was important to have, at least on the technical side, the best to fight for that.

“Also, on the other side, on the economic side, is also a good offer, so I think at the end I found a good compromise, and I’m really happy, really excited for the new challenge.”

Bautista was able to get a first taste of 2026 in a recent test at Aragon with the updated Panigale V4 R. It was not a test about performance, the Spaniard insisted, but it was important to give initial feedback on two different configurations of the bike.

“It was our ‘first date’ and it was not too bad, sincerely,” he said.

“But it was not a real performance test, it was a test just to compare many items that Ducati have to compare before deciding which bike we will use; so I had two bikes and I started to compare some items for Ducati.

“It was not like a performance test, it was just to take the first [time to sit on the bike] and to give information to Ducati.

“So, I think it was important because we tried many things and they know now my direction for the bike for next year.”