Nicolò Bulega is the 2026 Superbike World Champion. The Aruba.it Racing - Ducati rider secured his first title in the premier production-based motorcycle racing category with second place in Race 2 at Cremona on 27 September, settling the championship with two rounds still to run. Ducati completed a clean sweep of the Riders’, Manufacturers’ and Teams’ titles, while the new Panigale V4 R remained unbeaten throughout its first WorldSBK season.

The result came in Ducati’s centenary year and in front of Bulega’s home crowd. It also makes him the first Italian rider to win the Superbike World Championship with Ducati. Claudio Domenicali, Ducati’s CEO, called the achievement a success with a distinctly Italian character and said the new Panigale V4 R had been given the most ambitious possible target from its debut: to be immediately competitive at the front. Ducati’s season delivered that objective in the most emphatic way, with the motorcycle winning every race in 2026.

The title became an all-Ducati battle at Donington

The Riders’ Championship was already mathematically certain to remain with Ducati after Donington. With four rounds still to be contested, Bulega and Iker Lecuona were the only riders left in contention. That changed the nature of the title fight, but it did not make the result automatic: Bulega still had to complete the job on track at Cremona, where his second-place finish in Race 2 made the championship official.

Lecuona added three victories during the Cremona weekend, underlining the strength of Ducati’s second rider as well as Bulega’s consistency. With two rounds remaining, Bulega’s season record stood at 26 wins from 30 races and four second places. All four runner-up results came behind Lecuona, producing four Aruba.it Racing - Ducati one-two finishes.

Bulega’s speed was just as significant as his points total. He took nine consecutive pole positions and set the all-time lap record at every circuit visited by the championship through the Cremona round. The combination of qualifying pace, race wins and repeated one-two finishes gave Ducati control of the season long before the final two rounds.

A second Ducati world title for Bulega

The WorldSBK crown is Bulega’s second World Championship title with Ducati, following his 2023 Supersport championship. Ducati says that makes him the first rider in history to become World Champion in both categories with the Italian manufacturer. His success also gives Ducati its 17th Riders’ Title in WorldSBK.

Bulega’s achievement is part of a much broader Ducati record. The manufacturer has competed in WorldSBK since the championship’s inaugural 1988 edition and now counts 17 Riders’ Titles, 22 Manufacturers’ Titles, 479 victories and 1,266 podiums. The 1,266 podiums are described by Ducati as a record unmatched by any manufacturer in any category of motorcycle racing.

The Panigale V4 R wins all 30 races

The new Panigale V4 R was undefeated from the opening round through the end of its debut campaign, taking 30 wins from 30 races. Its first season brought Ducati a fifth consecutive Manufacturers’ Title and lifted the company’s total to 22 titles across the championship’s 38 editions. The Panigale V4 R has now accounted for five of those Manufacturers’ Titles, in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026.

The motorcycle is the latest descendant of a Ducati racing lineage that the company traces back to 2001. Its WorldSBK specification includes MotoGP-derived Corner Sidepods and the Ducati Racing Gearbox. Ducati identifies both as innovations introduced for the first time on a road-legal Ducati motorcycle. The approach reflects the manufacturer’s stated strategy of developing solutions at the highest level of competition before transferring that expertise to production motorcycles.

The 2026 Panigale V4 R also joins the Ducati 916 and 999 as the only motorcycles from the manufacturer to win both the Riders’ and Manufacturers’ titles in their debut season. Its racing success was accompanied by recognition for the design: in 2025, the model received the Red Dot Award, the iF Design Award and the Good Design Award. Ducati describes it as the seventh generation of its supersport motorcycles, with achievements both on the circuit and away from it.

A championship record built across generations

Ducati’s 17 Riders’ Titles have been won by Raymond Roche in 1990; Doug Polen in 1991 and 1992; Carl Fogarty in 1994, 1995, 1998 and 1999; Troy Corser in 1996; Neil Hodgson in 2003; James Toseland in 2004; Troy Bayliss in 2001, 2006 and 2008; Carlos Checa in 2011; Álvaro Bautista in 2022 and 2023; and Bulega in 2026.

The Manufacturers’ Titles have come through several Ducati generations: the 888 won three, in 1991, 1992 and 1993; the 916, 996 and 998 collected eight between 1994 and 2002; the 999 added three in 2003, 2004 and 2006; the 1098 and 1198 secured three in 2008, 2009 and 2011; and the Panigale V4 R has now taken five from 2022 through 2026.

Domenicali also linked Bulega’s next chapter with Ducati. He said the manufacturer will continue the relationship from next year in the MotoGP World Championship, following a season in which Bulega, Lecuona, the Aruba.it Racing - Ducati Team and the Panigale V4 R delivered all three major WorldSBK titles. The announcement places Bulega’s move into MotoGP alongside, rather than separate from, the championship campaign that established him as Ducati’s latest Superbike world champion.