Montella's turning point, Bautista's woes, and the case of the carbon-ceramic brake discs: the interview with Barnabò

The Barni Spark Racing Team is confirming itself as the best independent squad in the 2026 Superbike World Championship. Shining above all is Yari Montella, who after a tricky rookie 2025 has put together a string of very positive results (8 podiums in 2026) that have brought him to 3rd place overall and also to sign a contract extension for 2027.

Alvaro Bautista’s situation is more complicated: he arrived to be the leader in the box but has found himself dealing with the usual ballast issues as well as an injury. His future is more uncertain. We discussed all this and more with team principal Marco Barnabò.

“Yari is doing very well, after things didn’t go as we expected in 2025. Despite the inexperience and the rough patches, we saw he had speed and decided to put our faith in him again for 2026. That decision has paid off and gives us double satisfaction. We know we’re not yet at the level we want, so we decided to continue the work and see if with another season we can take another step forward. The goal will be to be more competitive both on our weaker tracks and on those that favor us.”

“Toward the end of last year, when things were going badly, we discussed adding mental training to his physical preparation. He was immediately positive about the idea and got help from someone who also supports other riders with mental preparation. That certainly had an impact. Also, I have to say Yari is a very serious guy, a hard worker. He worked well over the winter, and we already noticed a change during the pre-season tests. He’s also become clearer-headed and more self-aware: when he crashes, he knows why; in 2025 we couldn’t explain certain crashes. The team stayed the same, the bike is a bit different, but the biggest change came from Yari.”

“There’s a combination of things to consider. What bothers him most is the extra weight on the bike, a situation he sees as discrimination, given that the minimum weight rule was introduced after his numerous victories. It was designed specifically with him in mind and in the end it ruined everything for him. Add to that the tests we couldn’t do because of bad weather, the team change, the injury… A mix of factors that hasn’t helped us. We also had a tough start with Petrucci, then when he gained confidence with the bike, the tires, and the team, he achieved important results. Right now, Alvaro has a higher potential, but neither he nor we are able to show it. We’re sorry about that, but we’re working hard. We’ve made changes to the tank and the seat, tried softer forks and different triple clamps. We’ll also test a new swingarm. He’s putting in the effort too—he came back at Aragon even with a broken foot. Unfortunately, even when everyone is giving their maximum, getting the results you expect and deserve isn’t guaranteed.”

“It’s a big problem. Before, we had a much heavier rider like Petrucci and we had to find ways to lighten the bike. Now we’ve had to add weight and make the bike smaller. With Danilo we had a small bike—it was Alvaro’s—and we had to modify it to suit his size. The 2026 bike was born large for Bulega, and we have to make it smaller for Bautista. The biggest issue is that we’ve invested a lot of money to figure out how to distribute the ballast effectively and, honestly, we haven’t managed to find a solution. We’re adopting the best possible compromise, but I expected the extra weight would cause less trouble.”

“No, we haven’t talked about that yet with him or with his manager Battistella. We’ll do the Donington Park round, then August will likely be the month when we calmly think about the second rider for 2027. At the moment, we’re not dealing with that matter yet.”

“In my opinion, Donington will be a difficult track and we’ll need to be able to limit the damage. At Misano we knew we’d be competitive—we understood that from the test. Donington has never been an easy track for Ducati and we have to try to get the maximum possible, while keeping an eye on the standings. We need to be smart and also think in terms of the championship.”

“I wouldn’t want to let it slip away for the second year in a row. Danilo fully deserved it, but we know how racing is. That’s why I say we need to be smart and not ruin what we’ve achieved so far.”

“We were absolutely not involved. Last year they had Petrucci try them in one or two sessions, then that was the end of it. This year we’ve never seen them. They could have let us test them at Misano, but now we have no data to speak well or ill of them. I think only the factory teams have tested them. As of today, we don’t know how much they cost and we haven’t received any kind of official communication. I can say that in recent years no one has had brake problems in Superbike. Carbon-ceramic discs are not present on any production bike, so this also moves us away from the goal of having a championship with production-derived motorcycles. Another point: if they tell us the bikes need to go slower to increase safety on track, why give us discs that make braking easier? This way the riders can go even faster, knowing they can stop the bike more readily. They should give us an explanation, even if between the lines we all know it. Officially, we don’t have one. I’ll add that I have a sponsor who supplies my rear discs and who, in 2027, was supposed to supply the fronts as well. I’ll be forbidden from that, because we’ll have a single supplier and there won’t even be the option to stick with steel discs.”

“I’m sure the organization is working to try to improve the championship, but I’d like to be involved in decisions and not find things out when they’re already done. I might still disagree with certain choices, but at least there should be a discussion beforehand. Moreover, private teams can put ideas on the table that could help Superbike. We can provide a different point of view compared to factory teams, which might miss certain details.”

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