Claudio Domenicali hails “very special” Nicolo Bulega WorldSBK season
Claudio Domenicali says Ducati is “very proud” of Nicolo Bulega’s dominant 2026 WorldSBK campaign.
Nicolo Bulega’s dominant 2026 WorldSBK season has been hailed as “very special” by Claudio Domenicali.
With six races to go, Bulega has already clinched the championship, making this the first season since 2022 that the title has been decided before the final round.
He’s done that having finished on the podium in each of the 30 races so far and winning 26 of them.
It’s the extent of the domination that has stood out in Bulega’s season to Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali.
“We feel very proud,” Domenicali told WorldSBK.com after Race 2 at the Italian WorldSBK.
“It’s been very special because not only Nicolo [Bulega] won the championship, but also how he dominated.
“We had a new bike this year, the new Panigale, so we were actually expecting to improve performance, but actually the performance of the new Panigale has been very strong.
“Nicolo did something really fantastic because the number of consecutive wins that he made all together has been incredible.”
Domenicali went on to reflect on Ducati’s journey with Bulega, which started when he moved to its then-new Supersport project with the Aruba team after a poor few years in Moto2.
“Actually, he came here in the moment of his career which was complicated,” said Domenicali.
“But then the team trusted him, we trusted him, and he restarted from Supersport, and actually winning Supersport and Superbike together is the first time.
“So, it’s a very remarkable achievement, and also we are very excited about the new step because we found a way to have a deal for him in MotoGP, so it could be a very good story for motorsport in general.”
Bulega’s move to MotoGP next season with the VR46 team will make him the second WorldSBK champion in two seasons to move to the grand prix paddock after Toprak Razgatlioglu made the switch this year with Yamaha. Unlike Razgatlioglu, Bulega will move having spent 2026 testing Ducati’s 2027 bike, the first of the new era of MotoGP with 850cc engines and Pirelli tyres.
Alex joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having covered consumer and racing motorcycle news at Visordown for two years.
