How Nicolo Bulega can become WorldSBK champion at Magny-Cours

Ducati’s Nicolo Bulega finally has his first chance to win the 2026 WorldSBK title this weekend, but making the maths work will require outside assistance.

Bulega has dominated the 2025 season so far, winning 23 of the 24 races and finishing second in the only race he hasn’t won.

He’s won in the dry and in the wet, at fast tracks, slow tracks, tracks with changes of direction and chicanes, and tracks with no flow whatsoever. 

And he’s done all of that winning on the Ducati Panigale V4 R, updated for 2026; a new bike to WorldSBK, but one that has proven to be by far the class of the field. All of the first three riders in the championship are on the Ducati, as well as five of the top-seven and six of the top-10.

Bulega, though, has been a class apart from the rest of the pack, and this weekend the series returns to the circuit where arguably he broke through as the standout rider among the championship’s current crop, when he won both Sunday races in the absence of Toprak Razgatlioglu in 2024.

It could also be the site of Bulega’s first WorldSBK crown this weekend if things go his way.

Bulega currently leads the standings by 133 points. 

After Magny-Cours, there will be three rounds remaining in 2026, meaning 186 available. It means Bulega needs to out-score Iker Lecuona – who is the only rider still in mathematical contention to beat Bulega to the title – by 53 points over the weekend. With 62 points available this weekend, Lecuona needs to score 10 points across the three races in order to stop Bulega from clinching at round nine.

That means a sixth-place finish in Race 1 for Lecuona – who has finished in the top-two in every race since round two at Portimao – will be enough to ensure the championship goes to the next round at Cremona, regardless of Bulega’s results at Magny-Cours.

Cremona, of course, is the Italian Round, so a postponement of Bulega’s title celebrations is unlikely to upset the rider from Emilia-Romagna too much.