Nicolò Bulega moves to MotoGP: from 2027 he will ride for VR46 alongside FermĂn Aldeguer
Nicolò Bulega will become a full-time MotoGP rider from the 2027 season. Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team and Ducati officially confirmed on September 9 that the 26-year-old Italian will move from the Superbike World Championship to the premier class, where he will ride a Ducati Desmosedici GP alongside FermĂn Aldeguer. With this, the Tavullia-based team has completed its rider line-up for a season that will mark the beginning of a completely new technical era in MotoGP. For Bulega, this is a return to the Grand Prix paddock where he began his international career, but also his first full-time commitment in the top category after already competing in two races at the end of 2025 as a replacement rider for the factory Ducati Lenovo team.
The decision comes in the middle of a season in which Bulega is convincingly leading WorldSBK and breaking records in the production-based motorcycle championship. According to official WorldSBK data after nine completed rounds, the Italian won 26 of the first 27 races of the 2026 season, collected 553 points and built a 146-point advantage over teammate Iker Lecuona. His only defeat up to that point came in the first race at Donington Park, where Lecuona himself beat him. After the Magny-Cours round, Bulega was only one victory away from Ălvaro Bautista's record of 27 wins in a single WorldSBK season, and already at the next round in Cremona he has a mathematical chance of securing the championship title.
Ducati retains Bulega and takes him into its MotoGP project
Bulega's move is not merely a contract with the VR46 team. Ducati Corse simultaneously announced an extension of its own agreement with the Italian rider, confirming that he will remain part of Ducati's sporting structure even after leaving WorldSBK. The Borgo Panigale manufacturer described the step as a natural continuation of the development of a rider who in recent years has progressed from a World Supersport title to fighting at the front in Superbike and then to the role of test rider for the MotoGP programme. Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team meanwhile remains Ducati's factory-supported team, allowing Bulega to enter MotoGP within a technical environment he already knows very well.
Ducati Corse General Manager Luigi Dall'Igna stressed in the official announcement that Bulega has demonstrated an ability to keep improving, a high level of competitiveness and the capacity to extract the maximum from Ducati motorcycles. Dall'Igna judged that the right moment had arrived for a move into a new category and that VR46 should provide the appropriate environment for adaptation. At the same time, Ducati made it clear that the immediate priority remains unchanged: before the MotoGP project begins, Bulega and Aruba.it Racing - Ducati remain fully focused on the closing stages of the WorldSBK season and on winning the title.
A similar message was delivered by Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali. In the official statement, he recalled that Bulega had earned his MotoGP opportunity through results on the track and pointed out that Ducati sees in him a rider who has matured both competitively and technically. Particular emphasis was placed on his record-breaking winning streak in Superbike, which during 2026 confirmed his consistency after two consecutive seasons finished in second place in the championship. Ducati is therefore not bringing an unknown name into 2027, but a rider whose development in recent years has been closely connected with the brand.
Return to VR46 closes a circle that began more than a decade ago
For Bulega, the move to Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team also has a strong sporting connection with the beginning of his career. He made his first appearances in the Moto3 World Championship in 2015 as a wildcard rider, the same year in which he won what was then the FIM CEV Moto3 Junior World Championship. He then completed three full seasons in Moto3 with a team linked to the VR46 project, and in 2019 took his first step into Moto2 with the same structure. His Grand Prix career during those years did not develop along the expected direct path toward MotoGP, so after 2021 he chose a completely different direction.
In the official VR46 team announcement, Bulega said that reaching MotoGP was a dream come true and explained his decision to join VR46 specifically through his long-standing connection with the team and the people he has known since his time in the VR46 Riders Academy. He emphasised that his path had been different from the usual one: after his early years in Moto3 and Moto2, he moved into championships for production-derived motorcycles, where he built a new career. According to him, the success achieved in WorldSSP and WorldSBK exceeded expectations and opened the possibility of returning to the goal he had had since he was a child.
Team Director Alessio Salucci stressed that VR46 has known Bulega for years and that he is a rider who began his career precisely within their system. Team manager Pablo Nieto added that his development had not always been straightforward, but that through his domination in WorldSBK he had proved that he deserved a place in MotoGP. Nieto particularly highlighted two elements that could make the transition easier: Bulega's experience with tyres from WorldSBK and his work on developing Ducati's new MotoGP generation as a test rider.
From World Supersport to records in Superbike
The turning point in Bulega's career began in 2022, when after three seasons in Moto2 he moved to World Supersport with Aruba.it Racing and Ducati. In his first year in that category he achieved nine podium finishes, and in 2023 he took complete control of the championship. According to official WorldSBK data, that year he won 16 of 24 races and claimed the world championship title, Ducati's first in WorldSSP. The result earned him promotion to the factory Superbike team for 2024.
The move to the more powerful Panigale V4 R did not require a long adaptation period. In his debut WorldSBK season, Bulega won six times, took 24 podiums in 36 races and finished second in the championship behind Toprak RazgatlÄąoÄlu. A year later he again finished runner-up, this time with 14 victories and 32 podiums, while the title fight was decided only in the season finale in Jerez. At the end of 2025, WorldSBK recorded that RazgatlÄąoÄlu won the title with 616 points, only 13 more than Bulega's 603.
The 2026 season changed the balance of power. Bulega won the first 21 races of the year, and including the end of the previous season his overall streak grew to 25 consecutive WorldSBK victories, which Ducati cites as a category record. He was beaten for the first time only in Race 1 at Donington Park on July 11, after which he immediately returned to winning in the Superpole Race and the second main race. Three victories at Magny-Cours in early September raised his seasonal total to 26 wins from 27 starts and his overall number of WorldSBK victories to 46.
Such statistics place his move to MotoGP in a significantly different context from the one in which he left the Grand Prix championship several years ago. Bulega now returns as an established winner, a rider with a World Supersport world championship title, two WorldSBK runner-up finishes and a commanding lead in the 2026 championship. For Ducati, the fact that he is already involved in the development process is also important, meaning that his arrival in the new category will not begin from zero from a technical standpoint.
He already has experience on a MotoGP motorcycle
Bulega's MotoGP debut happened before his full-time contract. At the end of the 2025 season, Ducati brought in the then WorldSBK runner-up as a replacement for Marc MĂĄrquez in the final two rounds, at the Portuguese Grand Prix in PortimĂŁo and the finale in Valencia. Before his first appearance he completed a test of the Desmosedici GP in Jerez, and Ducati was already using him at that time as a MotoGP test rider. Those two Grand Prix weekends gave him his first direct experience with a premier-class prototype, the working procedures of a factory team and the different demands of a MotoGP weekend.
That experience will be particularly valuable because 2027 will not be an ordinary season involving only a team change, but one of the biggest technical changes in modern MotoGP history. Under the rules published by MotoGP and the FIM, maximum engine capacity will be reduced from 1000 to 850 cubic centimetres, the maximum permitted cylinder bore from 81 to 75 millimetres, and the number of engines available per rider during the season will be reduced from seven to six. Fuel tank capacity in Grand Prix races will fall from 22 to 20 litres, aerodynamic rules will become more restrictive, and motorcycle ride-height adjustment systems will be banned.
From 2027, all Grand Prix classes will also use fuel that must be entirely of non-fossil origin, as part of a broader change to the championship's technical concept. The new regulations are designed to reduce maximum speeds, limit some aerodynamic complexity and increase efficiency while simultaneously preserving MotoGP's prototype character. For a new rider such as Bulega, this means entering the championship at a time when even the more experienced competitors will have to relearn the limits of the new motorcycles.
Pirelli could make one of the biggest transitions easier for Bulega
Another major change concerns tyres. MotoGP has confirmed that Pirelli will become the sole official tyre supplier in MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 from 2027, after Michelin had held that role in the premier class since 2016. Bulega, meanwhile, is coming to MotoGP from WorldSBK, a championship in which Pirelli supplies the tyres through the end of 2026, meaning he will bring extensive experience with the characteristics of the same manufacturer into the new category. Pablo Nieto publicly singled out precisely this detail as a potential advantage in the adaptation process.
The advantage should not, however, be overestimated. A MotoGP prototype and a WorldSBK motorcycle have different construction foundations, aerodynamics, mass distribution, brakes, electronics and development methods, while the tyres intended for the new MotoGP generation will not simply be identical to the products used in Superbike. Nevertheless, Bulega will not be encountering the philosophy of Pirelli's racing product for the first time at the very moment when the entire MotoGP grid switches to a new supplier. In a season when both the motorcycles and tyres are changing simultaneously, this is experience that VR46 and Ducati clearly consider relevant.
VR46 begins 2027 with a completely new rider pairing
Bulega's arrival also confirmed the other half of VR46's 2027 line-up. On August 26, the team had already announced that it was bringing FermĂn Aldeguer from Gresini, who signed for 2027 and 2028 and will become an official Ducati Corse rider. MotoGP stated in its announcement that Aldeguer will have a factory-specification Ducati Desmosedici GP. The Spaniard won the rookie-of-the-year title in his debut 2025 season and achieved his first MotoGP victory, and he brings two years of experience in the premier class into the new VR46 line-up.
The combination of Aldeguer and Bulega therefore brings together two different development paths. Aldeguer arrives at the team as a young rider already accustomed to MotoGP, while Bulega comes as a considerably more experienced competitor who found his highest level through WorldSSP and WorldSBK. Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali described the pair as a young line-up with great potential, while VR46 emphasises that it will provide Bulega with maximum support during his adaptation. The exact relationship of technical specifications and support between the two motorcycles will be among the details that the team and Ducati will define for the new 850 cc era.
Before MotoGP, one major goal still remains
Despite his confirmed future, Bulega's immediate job remains in WorldSBK. After the Magny-Cours round, he leads with 553 points ahead of Lecuona on 407, with three rounds remaining in the season. WorldSBK calculated that he can mathematically secure the title as early as Cremona: to confirm it after the first race he must have a lead of at least 161 points, after the Superpole Race 149, and after the second race 124 points. His current advantage of 146 points means that the title decision could already become possible during the Italian weekend.
At the same time, he is on the verge of another historic achievement. With 26 victories in 2026, he is only one away from equalling Bautista's record of 27 wins in a single season, set in 2023. After Magny-Cours, Bulega said that he wanted to keep winning and that securing the title in Cremona would have special meaning, but he did not want to set MotoGP goals in advance. In his first season in the premier class, according to his own words, he intends to approach things race by race and gradually build results.
The move to MotoGP therefore comes at a moment when Bulega's career is completing an almost circular path: from the VR46 system in the junior categories, through a difficult period in Moto2, a complete reset in production-based motorcycle championships and a return among the most sought-after riders on the market. His greatest challenge now lies ahead, but also a rare opportunity to enter the premier class precisely in the year when the technical cards are being dealt anew. Before that, Ducati, Aruba.it Racing and Bulega himself have a clear goal of finishing 2026 with a title that would turn his dominant WorldSBK season into a logical introduction to a new beginning.
Sources:
- Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team - official confirmation of Bulega's arrival, statements from the rider and team management, and an overview of his career (link)
- Ducati Corse - confirmation of the contract extension with Bulega and statements by Claudio Domenicali and Luigi Dall'Igna (link)
- MotoGP - official announcement of Bulega's move to VR46 and confirmation of the rider line-up for 2027 (link)
- WorldSBK - standings after the ninth round of 2026 and Bulega's championship advantage (link)
- WorldSBK - statistics after Magny-Cours, including 26 victories in the season and his approach to Ălvaro Bautista's record (link)
- WorldSBK - Bulega's official profile with data on his WorldSSP results and the 2024 and 2025 WorldSBK seasons (link)
- Ducati Media House - confirmation of Bulega's MotoGP debut in the final two races of the 2025 season as a replacement in the Ducati Lenovo Team (link)
- MotoGP - overview of the technical rules for 2027, including 850 cc, engine, fuel and aerodynamic restrictions (link)
- MotoGP - confirmation of Pirelli as the sole tyre supplier in MotoGP from 2027 (link)
- MotoGP - official confirmation of FermĂn Aldeguer's transfer to VR46 for 2027 and 2028 (link)