A few laps, a crash, and laughs with Bastianini: Bulega’s Jerez report

After staying in the garage on Wednesday, Bulega only rode today and ended the Superbike test at Jerez on top: unfortunately, very little time on a dry track.

Rain spoiled the first SBK test of 2026. Nicolò Bulega sat out the first day because the asphalt was wet. Today, dry conditions were available for only a couple of hours in the afternoon. The Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider used them to complete 24 laps and set the overall fastest time in 1'39"331. He would have liked to rack up more miles on the new Panigale V4 R, but unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate. We’ll have to wait for the next test scheduled in Portimão on January 28–29, hoping there won’t be more weather-related setbacks.

The 2024 and 2025 SBK runner-up was also involved in a crash, luckily without any physical consequences: "It wasn’t a bad test - he recounts - but the problem was the weather: track conditions were terrible and we didn’t ride much. There were a lot of wet patches on the asphalt and I crashed at Turn 5 because I was 10 centimeters off the racing line. I hit a patch and went down, but I’m fine physically."

It wasn’t all bad, but Bulega and the Aruba Ducati team had a set work plan to push forward the development of the Panigale V4 R and couldn’t carry it out: "It wasn’t a very useful test, since I only did 20 laps. The last time I rode before the winter break was on a MotoGP bike, so I used today’s laps to get my feeling back with the Superbike. I hope the next test goes better."

The rider from Emilia had tested the new bike in 2025, but there’s still work to do to have a fully defined and winning package: "The first impressions are positive - he explains - I had already tried the bike last year. Since it’s new, we need to be on track and do more laps. The rain here ruined our plans. I hope we find good conditions in Portimão so we can work. We haven’t been lucky at Jerez in recent years."

In the Aruba Ducati garage there was also Enea Bastianini, a rider for the KTM Tech3 MotoGP team, who rode a Panigale V4 S at Jerez to train for the new season. He and Bulega get along well and chatted during downtime.