Alvaro Bautista still “struggling with the bike” despite French WorldSBK top six

Alvaro Bautista says he is still “struggling” to find a good feeling on the 2026 Ducati in WorldSBK, despite a minor resgence in France where he was fifth in the final race.

The new Panigale V4 R has dominated this WorldSBK season, winning every race so far and taking podium lockouts in all but six races this year.

But for Bautista the season has been tough, especially in more recent rounds when he came back from injury.

At Magny-Cours, the first two races were poor by his standards, too, with a crash in the first race and a 16th in the Superpole Race. Race 2 was better, though, and he was at the back of a Ducati top-six lockout having come from outside the top-10.

“This afternoon I can finish the race without many troubles,” Alvaro Bautista told WorldSBK.com after Race 2 at Magny-Cours.

“For example, yesterday my pace was to fight for seventh, eighth place yesterday [Race 1], but after the red flag I had a problem and I crashed and I could not show our real potential. Also, this morning, I had some troubles in the Superpole Race; with the SCQ tyre I was struggling all the race, especially to stop the bike and I had some wide corners and I lost a lot. Otherwise I think it was possible to fight again for eighth, ninth place this morning. 

“In the afternoon [Race 2], everything was more normal: I did a good start and in the group I tried to fight in the first laps because, in the end, this track, we saw many overtakes and then go wide and then recover the position, the track line. So, it’s a tricky track for the overtakes.

“But I was able to not have any mistakes and I could recover many positions. 

“At the end, sixth place is not bad, but it’s not the position I feel to fight for. But at the moment it’s the situation. 

“I don’t find a good feeling with the bike, I don’t find something that helped me to push harder and I’m struggling with the bike. 

“If you see, [...] I’m suffering when I’m riding the bike. 

“In any case, I try to get always the maximum and today the maximum was sixth, so I’m happy for that.”

Bautista added that the ankle injury he suffered in Most has largely healed by now, and that a consistent technical platform this weekend allowed him to achieve better results than chasing something better.

“Well, when you have an injury, it doesn’t help,” he said. “Especially in Aragon, I came back and I felt good – maybe the track was a bit favourable because it’s a track that suits very well my riding style. 

“But then in Misano and Donington we struggled, especially in Misano I felt a bit worse with the ankle because I felt like I have to do more effort than in Aragon. In Donington, also we tried many setups, also in Misano.

“On many Fridays the feeling was not too bad, but because we want to improve the feeling and the setup was worse and worst and worse, and maybe we lost the way. 

“In this track [Magny-Cours], from Friday I didn’t feel too bad, so we just decided to not touch the bike and to get and to build up some confidence with the bike and we did it. 

“It’s what I said, yesterday without the crash I think seventh, eighth position was possible, and today sixth place at the moment is the maximum we can achieve. But we need to find or to recover the confidence I’m missing.”