FIRST LOOK: Alvaro Bautista makes first appearance of new WorldSBK era

Barni Ducati has launched its 2026 WorldSBK season in an event in Italy, showing off its star signing, Alvaro Bautista, for the first time, as well as their new colours.

After multiple years of a predominantly black livery with red highlights, Bautista’s arrival comes along with a greater amount of red on the Barni Ducati for 2026. It’s a much brighter design around the front, which should make it much more visible on-track.

Two-time World Superbike Champion Bautista moves to Barni this year after four seasons at the factory Ducati team, having been comfortably beaten by Nicolo Bulega in the past two campaigns. He partners Yari Montella at the Italian satellite squad, the 2024 Supersport bronze medallist hoping for a most consistent 2026 season after a crash-strewn rookie campaign.

Winless since the Superpole Race at the 2024 Dutch Round, Bautista will be hoping to end his drought this year and, in some ways, he can be viewed as one of the riders who could challenge Bulega for this year’s title.

Much of that will depend on whether Bautista can find a consistently good feeling on the bike which he has largely missed since the introduction of the combined rider-bike minimum weight in 2024. 

On the other hand, the Spaniard, as all of the Ducati riders this year, will have a new bike to learn, as the Bologna factory introduces a new homologation of the Panigale V4 R that includes engine and chassis updates, a new aerodynamics package, and perhaps most crucially a double-sided swingarm.

As far as adapting to the new bike, Bautista and his fellow satellite Ducati riders are at an immediate disadvantage to the factory riders, since both Bulega and Iker Lecuona were able to ride the 2026 bike at the post-season test in Jerez last October, while the satellite riders have been unable to ride a WorldSBK-spec machine since the final round of the 2025 season.

Bautista was at least able to ride the 2026 bike in a test at Aragon late last summer, and Montella had a test on the new bike during last year as well.