SBK Aragon: World Championship of the Missing, Ducati’s Rivals Adrift

One worse than the other: the Ducati Panigale V4 R is a rocket and Nicolò Bulega a MotoGP-level rider, but the rivals are literally adrift. The ’26 World Championship has turned into a sort of one-make series not only because of the enormous potential of Borgo Panigale but also (above all?) due to the shortcomings of the others. The verdict of race 1 at MotorLand Aragon was merciless.

While Bulega continues his alien-like season, those behind are floundering. The Kawasaki-powered Bimota was the only one to escape the general disaster. Alex Lowes finished fourth, amid a thicket of factory and privateer Panigales (six of the top seven), keeping the gap to 16 seconds over the 18 laps. Not small, but still an acceptable deficit even considering the differing caliber of the riders.

Bulega utterly dominated Supersport; last year he lost the head-to-head with Toprak Razgatlioglu only at the final race, paying dearly for two DNFs due to mechanical issues and the Misano crash caused by Bassani. The Brit has been a full-time Superbike rider since 2014 and has always raced on factory bikes: Suzuki, Kawasaki, Yamaha, and now Bimota, winning only four races in total. Alex says Bulega wouldn’t win on the Bimota, but who can say? He certainly wouldn’t be taking sixteen seconds from the Panigale if it were ridden by a normal rider.

HRC’s commitment in Superbike is massive, both in technical effort and, obviously, budget. With Alvaro Bautista the Tokyo giant regularly targeted the podium, then with Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge it became almost a mirage. After inexplicably changing rider choices, in this 2026 season the Honda ship has sunk. Jake Dixon started his World Championship only here in Aragon, after shattering his right wrist in pre-season testing in Australia. Somkiat Chantra disappointed in MotoGP, and it’s unclear how Honda’s top brass could have hoped he’d become a Superbike top rider. Result: in race 1 the Thai rider shipped 39 seconds, finishing thirteenth and then losing two more positions for an illegal overtake. Dixon, still not at his best, went even worse.

Last year Andrea Locatelli won in the Netherlands, taking advantage of Bulega’s retirement due to mechanical issues. It was a one-off, but the YZF-R1, while not at Ducati and BMW’s level, was still almost always “the best of the rest.” Between regulatory concessions allowing it to use engine and chassis parts not homologated on the stock R1 and in-house development, this year the project should have accelerated. Instead, nothing—races go by and Yamaha keeps getting worse. This time the best was Stefano Manzi, who crossed the line 35 seconds after Bulega—an eternity. Locatelli crashed, Vierge was adrift: 38 seconds from the winner!

A year ago Toprak Razgatlioglu gave us great fun, igniting the Championship with his duel against Nicolò Bulega. The pair had another pace compared to the rest of the field, with third place almost always over ten seconds back. With the Turk out of the picture, it was predictable that Bulega would run riot. Miguel Oliveira and Danilo Petrucci are both sidelined with injuries, but so far the Portuguese has been the only one to at least patch things up, finishing on the podium at home in Portimão. There, where with the same bike, Toprak had swept the board just a few months earlier.

It’s been months with nothing changing, not even in the ten minutes of the morning warm-up. Nicolò Bulega, while waiting to step onto the Ducati VR46 in MotoGP, simply has no rivals here.

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