Bulega wants MotoGP and is awaiting news from Mugello: meanwhile he rattles his SBK rivals

The test was useful for the SBK dominator, who during the Motorland weekend will be awaiting important updates from Tuscany.

The sixth round of the 2026 Superbike World Championship takes place at Aragon, and Nicolò Bulega arrives having won the last nineteen races in a row, including the final ones of the 2025 calendar. A crushing dominance by the Emilian rider with the new Ducati Panigale V4 R, a bike he clicked with right away, managing to exploit it better than his fellow brand mates.

Given the lead he has built up in the standings, he doesn’t even have the obsession of needing to win at all costs. In Spain his teammate Iker Lecuona will be particularly motivated to beat him, after twelve consecutive second places. It could be a chance to see some great battles between the two standard-bearers of the Aruba Racing Ducati team.

On May 20–21 there was a Superbike test at Misano Adriatico and, of course, Bulegas finished it with the fastest time. He was the only rider to lap under 1’32”, putting a hefty 0.413 seconds into Lecuona.

The two days at the circuit named after Marco Simoncelli, host of the SBK round on the June 12–14 weekend, were also very important for the current championship dominator: “I think we found something I like,” said Bulega, “and I’m curious to try it here at Aragon as well. I like this track; last year I won two races here and also took pole position. I hope to be fast this weekend too, which will be tough because of the high temperatures.”

The 26-year-old rider explained which areas they focused on in Emilia-Romagna: “We tried something different with the setup, since it rained during winter testing and we didn’t have the chance to play around with the bike. It was almost like a pre-season test, and we tried different setups, finding a solution that I think can work here too.” We might see an even stronger Bulega at Motorland. Bad news for Lecuona and the rest of the grid.

Even though he isn’t under pressure to pull off another hat-trick of victories, the Emilian rider would still like to keep winning to send more messages to the MotoGP paddock, where he hopes to land in 2027. His dream is to race in the premier class of Grand Prix motorcycle racing, and to do it with Ducati there’s only one seat available: the one vacated by Fabio Di Giannantonio (future with KTM) in the Pertamina Enduro VR46 team, where Fermin Aldeguer’s arrival is already certain.

Asked at Aragon about his future, Bulegas couldn’t provide any specific updates: “I have no news,” he replied. “We’re continuing to talk. My manager is at Mugello this weekend and I hope to have news at the end of the weekend.”

The MotoGP Italian Grand Prix is being held at Mugello, and Alberto Martinelli, the Emilian rider’s manager, will have the chance to advance new talks to try to find his client a seat. There had also been mention of the Trackhouse team, where Enea Bastianini is expected to arrive. It seems hard to imagine an Aprilia line-up made up solely of Italian riders, especially considering the Bezzecchi–Bagnaia pairing in the factory squad.

Ai Ogura will go to Yamaha, while there is uncertainty around Raul Fernandez, a bet by Massimo Rivola, furious after the Spaniard took out Jorge Martin in the last GP at Barcelona. Will that incident change anything in Fernandez’s future? There are riders eager to get an RS-GP in the Trackhouse garage. Bulega’s priority is Ducati, but he is forced to consider alternatives as well.