SBK, Bautista: "Stupid weight rule; they don't understand anything. Future? It depends on the results

Corsedimoto interviewed the two-time WorldSBK champion: we talked about his season, the much-debated ballast issue, the future, and more.

Alvaro Bautista is encountering difficulties in the 2026 Superbike World Championship; so far he hasn’t achieved the results he and the Barni Spark Racing Team were hoping for. In the overall standings he’s ninth with 109 points, with just one podium to his name. The Spaniard continues to be heavily affected by the 6–7 kilos of ballast he has to carry on his Ducati Panigale V4 R and can’t ride the way he wants. An injury has also slowed his progress. We discussed it with him directly.

“I’m doing well, during this long summer break I’m enjoying time with my family. The foot is better. I recovered quickly at the beginning, but now fully reducing the swelling requires a much slower process. In any case, it lets me do everything normally.”

“I started the year without specific expectations, but I thought I’d go better than I’ve managed so far. It’s a difficult season. In the first tests we couldn’t ride, so I wasn’t able to work with the new team, we didn’t collect data, I didn’t build confidence with the new bike. I came to the races without having found the feeling to push; sometimes I managed to push more and other times I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t able to. The ballast doesn’t help at all, obviously. And the injury was another extra problem to think about. As a rider and as a person I feel good, but the results aren’t coming. We’re working flat out, the Barni team is giving everything to help me, but the feeling we need to get the results we want hasn’t arrived yet.”

“The old model suited my riding style better; we practically came into being together, we both debuted in WorldSBK in 2019. I was the benchmark in its development; it was a bike I felt was mine. Adding ballast made it worse, but the base was suited to me and I was less affected by the extra weight. The new bike was made for slightly taller and heavier riders; it’s bigger than the previous one. The double-sided swingarm certainly has advantages, but in my situation it’s harder to exploit them. The base is different, I’m small and with the ballast I struggle even more. The other Ducati riders are fast, so the team and I need to find a way to extract more potential from a bike that has proven to be very competitive.”

“No, we’re still working on it. A new swingarm has been made and I think it can help me. At Donington Park I had a different bike every day. You always think you can improve, and several times we made changes ahead of the races, which didn’t always work. This year we’re trying a lot of solutions because we still don’t have a base that can work in all conditions.”

“I’m working on myself to improve as a rider, because you can always learn something in certain areas. For example, I want to try to better adapt my riding style to make more use of the new Ducati’s potential. Then, on the technical side, I hope to find a solution together with the team. I’m very happy with the Barni team; I see a lot of commitment, no one gets discouraged, and I hope that together we can improve. I’d like to find a good base to push hard. With my small physique, my window to work well with the bike is quite narrow; I have to find a way to stay within that window to get the most out of the bike. I’m in a situation where I need everything to be perfect to be competitive. I don’t have particular expectations in terms of results; I really want to work and be fast. I feel good, I feel I can be strong; we need to find what we’re missing. I hope to take a step forward between Magny-Cours and Cremona.”

“No, I didn’t expect them to remove that rule. I know that as long as I’m not at home, they won’t remove it. As I’ve said before, it’s a stupid rule; it only affects me and it makes no sense with bikes that are this heavy. They introduced it without knowing what consequences adding ballast to my bike would have. Almost all the people who decided to approve it don’t know what it means to go 300 km/h and have 6–7 kg more when you brake, when you go through a corner, when you accelerate… It’s easy to sit on the couch and say ‘Bautista wins too much, let’s put ballast on him because he’s the only small rider and let’s see if that stops him.’ It’s true that on the straight I can have an advantage, but in the corners I struggle more than bigger riders. There are always pros and cons in sport, but in this case they decided to take away all my pros and make the cons even worse. I didn’t expect the minimum weight rule to be abolished, because I know the technicians who introduced it have no understanding of what it means to ride a motorcycle. Anyway, I’ll continue my fight to try to have it removed; I’m doing it also for young riders with a physique similar to mine who risk being penalized in the future.”

“Exactly. With more weight on the bike, inertia increases in the corners and I’m more likely to crash and get hurt. The majority of my crashes have happened for this reason; the greater inertia always pushes me to the outside when I take corners. When I broke my foot at Most, the crash happened precisely due to this kind of dynamic.”

“I feel good physically and mentally, I still want to race and improve. I’m pushing to the max, but we’ll see what happens. Results are important to be able to continue: not just for me, but also for the team and the sponsors. I want to keep going, and in the meantime I want to enjoy the last races of the season, because I know I’ll do those. After that, I don’t know whether I’ll have a seat in 2027 or not.”

“My manager, Simone Battistella, is talking with Barni. It’s clear that we need results to carry on. We’re waiting for a few races to see if we can find a good feeling. 2027 will be a year with some novelties, starting with Michelin arriving as the new tire supplier. After the Magny-Cours round we’ll have a test with Michelin tires and I want to try them to really understand the situation. If I do the test, don’t like them, and I’m not competitive, then I might be the one to decide to stay home. But if I get on well with them, I’d like to continue. My priority is to stay in WorldSBK. If other offers come in, I’ll evaluate them.”

“Honestly, before the season started I had said that Yari would be strong in 2026. I wasn’t entirely surprised. He’s a young and very talented rider; he was fast in Supersport and had a year of Superbike experience. I had the feeling he would be competitive and, in fact, he’s having an incredible season. I congratulate him on what he’s doing. He’s still missing something to be close to Bulega and Lecuona, but I think he’ll get closer at the end of the championship.”

“I think 90% of it is down to competition that’s been too stagnant. Ducati keeps working to improve and you can see the results. The bike’s potential is high, but so is the riders’. The Panigale V4 R is super competitive, but it doesn’t ride itself; Ducati has several strong riders who can stay up front. Maybe the other brands are missing both greater investment in bike development and spending more to sign higher-level riders. I’m not saying they don’t have good riders, but to win you need to get winning riders. For me, it’s still unfair that a manufacturer who has worked better has to suffer penalties, like reduced fuel flow or engine rev limits, but that’s how it’s been decided.”

“Marc is the one with the best chance to win the championship, but someone I don’t want to rule out is Ogura: I like him a lot, he’s a fast and intelligent rider, he knows how to manage races very well. He’ll be a strong rival for Marquez. I don’t want to forget Martin either; we all know he’s super fast, but we have to see if he’ll feel good with the bike at the upcoming tracks. It’ll be an interesting and fun championship to follow: maybe the winner won’t be the fastest rider, but the smartest. Bezzecchi’s dip? There’s been a mix of bad luck and mistakes. Obviously, pressure also plays its part. It’s different when you’re the hunter versus when you’re being hunted; it’s normal to feel a bit of pressure. The important thing is to hold firm in tough moments and know how to react.”

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