Bautista hits back: "I can still win." Talavera also backs the anti-ballast fight

Bautista doesn’t give up, he continues his case against the Superbike regulations: he’s received support even in his hometown.

He turned 41 in November, but Alvaro Bautista still has a great desire to race and in 2026 he will be back on the WorldSBK grid. He will ride the new Panigale V4 R, but it will be with the Barni Spark Racing Team and not with the Aruba.it Racing Ducati team, for which he raced in 2019 and from 2022 to 2025. Even though he’s moving to an independent team, he will still enjoy significant technical support from Ducati, which has replaced him in its factory structure with fellow Spaniard Iker Lecuona.

What doesn’t seem likely to change in 2026 is the minimum weight rule, introduced starting from the 2024 Superbike season. As is well known, it forces the Spanish rider to race with ballast that inevitably affects his performance. He organized a petition among his colleagues to have it abolished and almost everyone signed it, but that alone isn’t enough to change the regulations. If FIM, Dorna, and the manufacturers don’t agree, nothing can be done.

On Tuesday, December 2, Bautista was received at the town hall of Talavera de la Reina, the city where he was born. Present were both the mayor, José Julián Gregorio, and the sports councilor, Antonio Núñez, along with various city council members. In addition to celebrating the rider for his career, there was also an opportunity to support him in his campaign against the minimum weight rule in Superbike.

Mayor Gregorio spoke on the matter as follows: “This city is with you and we continue to think you are the best. We’re here to support you so that everyone can compete on equal terms - as reported on talavera.es - because this rule seems unfair and unjustifiable to us.”

Alvaro is very grateful for the support he has received and has no intention of abandoning his cause: "The regulation is unfair, but we are fighting to try to make the sport as fair as possible. I continue to race because motorcycling is my life, it’s a sport I love and I enjoy continuing to give 100%. I still feel capable of becoming champion and fighting for the top positions. I feel competitive and I don’t understand why some rules should force you to stop doing what you love most."

As mentioned earlier, a change to the regulations is unlikely. The recent words of Gregorio Lavilla, Dorna WorldSBK Executive Director, suggested that everything will remain the same. With 99.99% certainty, the Spanish rider will continue to race with ballast on his Ducati Panigale V4 R and will have to try to give his best in that situation. The Barni Spark Racing Team is a very capable outfit and, thanks also to Ducati’s support, can still aim for good results. How good, we don’t know.

It would certainly be interesting to see Bautista ride without extra weight on the bike. It won’t happen, barring sensational twists, but we still hope he can put on a show on track. With the departure of a phenomenon like Toprak Razgatlioglu, who moved to MotoGP after his two Superbike titles with BMW, there is hope for a championship still marked by great battles.

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