WorldSBK manufacturers told Ducati dominance is "their fault"

Ducati’s current WorldSBK domination is the fault of the other manufacturers in the championship, Iker Lecuona says.

Ducati has won all 24 races in 2026 so far, and it has not lost since Toprak Razgatlioglu won the Superpole Race at Estoril last October for BMW.

It’s a 28-race winning run for Ducati in WorldSBK that has also seen its factory team take 1-2s in 20 of the last 21 races, and podium lockouts in every race since the Superpole Race at Balaton Park in early May.

It’s also taken the last nine consecutive pole positions, and the UK Round saw it lock out the top-six in Race 1, and by the end of the weekend it had won both the manufacturers’ and teams’ championship, and the only rider who can mathematically stop Nicolo Bulega from winning the 2026 riders’ title is his Aruba.it Racing Ducati team-mate, Iker Lecuona.

Lecuona, who joined Ducati from Honda this year having scored just two podiums in four seasons, sees no problem with this as the performance of the 2026 Panigale V4 R is the result of the work put in by the Bologna factory.

“Of course, right now we can say that we have the best bike,” Lecuona said after FP2 at the UK WorldSBK on 10 July.

“At the red flag [in FP2] it was like the first six were Ducatis and the other two Ducatis– was like Alex [Lowes] seventh, then one Ducati, and then Alvaro [Bautista] is not far. So, all Ducatis, we are there. 

“The Ducati works well, Ducati did an amazing job this year and the bike works in every track, in every situation, for every rider. 

“That also is very difficult, every rider rides in a different style where everything is different, but everyone goes fast.”

On the other hand, there are the other manufacturers, who, as Alex Lowes pointed out, may decide to leave the championship if they simply have no hope of winning races because Ducati built a type of bike they cannot justify building themselves.

But Lecuona has no sympathy, and says their lack of competitiveness can be blamed only on themselves, adding that reducing Ducati’s performance for the sake of the other manufacturers will just mean Ducati leaves the championship.

“They can complain, what they want to say,” he said.

“I don’t really care and, honestly, it’s their fault. If they want to win, they need to do a bike for winning. 

“I always say the same. They [Japanese manufacturers] want to win with a street bike in racing; Ducati want to win races, so they did a racing bike for the street. That’s it. 

“So, they can say and they can complain like they want, but the rules are the rules. Ducati was inside the rules, and they did it right. 

“I think we can’t do anything. Okay, maybe for the championship it’s not nice, but all the work, all the money Ducati spent to improve, to do everything, if you start to close, close, close… 

“Our bike is not fast enough, honestly. If you put all the fuel [flow] that we miss – and we feel it – we go half-a-second faster for a lap. 

“If you’re still closing, at the end Ducati says ‘Ciao, because we did it inside the rules that bike’. 

“You cannot cut more. 

“I understand, yes, but if you want to win, do a bike for winning. They have enough experience and potential to do it.”