MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

WorldSBK 2026 is Ducati territory, so for MotoMatters.com subscribers and supporters, Steve English looked at how data sharing is helping the Bologna manufacturer as they adapt to a new bike this season. Nicolo Bulega is dominating, Yari Montella is impressing while Alberto Surra's strong results also prove just how successful Ducati has been.

The further into the 2026 WorldSBK season we go the harder it becomes to find new ways to explain Nicolo Bulega’s supremacy. Five rounds in, fifteen wins on the board, and the Italian’s supremacy at each round is now almost inevitable. Each weekend feels less like a battle for victory and more like a showcase of why Ducati’s leading man simply can’t be ignored for a MotoGP seat next year.

Somewhere amid the crashes, controversy and anxious waits over riders’ health, a major MotoGP story took shape on Sunday. Fabio Di Giannantonio won his first race in 910 days, lifting himself in to title contention. Not for the first time in 2026, the Italian’s reliable excellence was somewhat overlooked.

On most normal Sundays, the headlines would have reflected the valour of his second ever win in the class. Yet the 27-year old was the first to acknowledge Alex Marquez and Johann Zarco’s wellbeing was of much greater importance.

One of Di Giannantonio’s most impressive feats was almost lost in the noise of those incidents, plus the clashes between Jorge Martin and Raul Fernandez plus Ai Ogura and Pedro Acosta.

Recovering from a poor start, he fought through from fifth to reel in the lead KTM with just over two laps to play. The feat was all the more remarkable considering the Italian was the rider that came closest to being wiped out by the remnants of Marquez’s exploding Ducati on that terrifying run down to Turn 10 which was more aircraft wreckage than motorcycle race.

Amid all the chaos and carnage of the Barcelona round of MotoGP, adding insult to injury was the fact that of the seventeen finishers, six were investigated for being under the minimum tire pressure. Though Pecco Bagnaia was eventually cleared - his wheel rim was found to be leaking, though at what rate we do not know - Toprak Razgatlioglu, Raul Fernandez, Joan Mir, Alex Rins, and Jack Miller were all handed a 16-second penalty.

For Razgatlioglu, Fernandez, Rins, and Miller, the penalties did not make a vast amount of difference. Rins dropped from eleventh to fourteenth, Miller from fourteenth, Razgatlioglu dropped out of the points from fifteenth to sixteenth, and Raul Fernandez had already lost so much time in his collision with Jorge Martin on the opening lap of the third attempt to start the race that he was already out of the points.

The final official test of the 1000cc era was something of a damp squib. Literally: the rain held off until around 1pm, at which point it became torrential, chasing everyone into the pits, and eventually out of the paddock and off toward Mugello for the following round. There was not all that much to test, as the manufacturers shift their focus to the 850cc machines they will contest the 2027 MotoGP championship on under new technical regulations.

The Barcelona MotoGP test was also the last test of 2026 that will be held in public. The switch of tire suppliers from Michelin to Pirelli creates an awkward situation commercially. Michelin are paying a lot of money for the privilege of being official tire supplier to MotoGP, and don't want another tire manufacturer stealing their thunder.

"I will not talk today about the race because I think it's not really important today," Pedro Acosta said. Even though both Alex Márquez and Johann Zarco came away from Barcelona with just - "just" - serious injuries, it is hard to think about what in other circumstances would have been an entertaining race. But the fact is, Alex Márquez was extremely lucky to come away with his life - saved in part by his own skill and ability - and Johann Zarco was not far off meeting the same fate.

On Sunday evening, after an afternoon that seemed to go on forever, Luca Marini managed to express to Italian and English-speaking journalists how a lot of us felt. "Bikes are dangerous," the Honda HRC Castrol rider said. "We're all here ready to risk our lives every corner, every lap. Unfortunately, it's part of our sport, and also its beauty, so if that feeling reaches the fans, I think it gains even more value."

Barcelona is a strange track, full of contrasts. On paper, the layout is fast and flowing, yet it was a bike notorious for being good at stop-and-go tracks which took pole, Pedro Acosta almost converting that KTM pole position into a win. It should favor the bike that turns best on the grid, yet with the exception of Raul Fernandez, the Aprilias were anonymous, appearing on screen mainly while barreling through the gravel trap. And at a track where rear grip is at a premium, the Honda, which has none, started from the second row and finished fifth.

It is also a track with one of the most glorious layouts, a track which challenges most aspects of a MotoGP bike and where you can really give it free rein. Yet the grip of the surface is terrible, not really worthy of MotoGP and in desperate need of new asphalt. And making that worse this year is the fact that it is unseasonably cold, air temperature barely reaching 20°C, where pushing 30°C is normal.

To say the times were tight at Barcelona today is something of an understatement. Pedro Acosta in first and Fabio Quartararo in tenth were separated by just over a quarter of a second. Enea Bastianini finished eleventh and missed out on Q2 by just eight hundredths of a second. There were 14 riders within half a second, and 19 within nine tenths. If you blinked on a fast lap, it was enough to put you out of Q2. It was the closest top ten ever seen in timed practice in MotoGP.

It was balanced too. All five manufacturers were present in the top ten, with two riders each making it straight through to Q2. There were some surprising names on that list. We are used to Pedro Acosta being fast on the KTM, but not his teammate Brad Binder joining him in Q2. For Fabio Quartararo to go through on the Yamaha is one thing, but for him to be beaten by Jack Miller, who finished one spot ahead of him in ninth, is another.

What makes for a successful weekend in WorldSBK? We're breaking it down each rider to see how their Expectation plays out against Reality during a race weekend...

5 Yari Montella (Barni Ducati)

Montella has qualified on the front row for three out of four rounds. The Italian has been impressive this season and qualifying will once again be key this weekend. The Czech circuit is one where it’s easy to make a mistake and for Montella, a rider who crashed a lot last year, this is a good test of the steps he’s made. Three top-seven finishes doesn’t sound like a great target for a rider who has finished on the podium this year, but to avoid mistakes all weekend would prove he is maturing.

7 Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Ducati)

Lecuona had the pace to challenge Bulega in Hungary but illness and penalties held him back. This weekend the Ducati won’t be as strong as it was in Balaton, but Lecuona needs to be the rider to stop the run of form for Bulega. Three podiums is the goal but winning a race is the target.

9 Danilo Petrucci (BMW Motorrad)

Most has been a great circuit for Petrux in the past. The BMW is a very different package to the Ducati he rode here in the past, but if he can qualify inside the top six like he did in Australia and Assen, he can score well this weekend. If Petrucci qualifies off the front two rows of the grid he can only aim for points finishes in each race.

Why are factory rides prized so highly over competitive satellite rides? Why would Alex Márquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio leave the safe haven of a proven race-winning Ducati to take seats in the factory KTM team, aboard a bike that has not won a race since Miguel Oliveira won in a downpour at Buriram in 2022?

Money, obviously. But not just money. An underrated perk is having everything arranged for you. Having someone organize all your travel for you. Being picked up from your home and driven to the airport. Having someone check in your bags, then pick them up again at your destination. Being able to concentrate on training, preparing, riding, racing, and nothing else. Life as a factory rider is very much easier.

Of course, neither Fabio Di Giannantonio nor Alex Márquez have been officially announced at KTM. Nor has Marc Márquez and Pedro Acosta at Ducati, Pecco Bagnaia at Aprilia, Jorge Martin and Ai Ogura at Yamaha, nor Fabio Quartararo and David Alonso at the factory Honda HRC Castrol team. Because the MSMA and MSEG are yet to come to terms about their contracts for the five-year period between 2027 and 2031. And we will not get official rider announcements until that deal is done.

“In F1, they speak English, in MotoGP they speak Catalan,” MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta stated at the presentation of the Barcelona round of MotoGP. It was part flattery - he was speaking to a room full of Catalan bigwigs at the time. And it is also not entirely true. As Marco Bezzecchi said to Ai Ogura in the car on the way from the podium to the press conference room at Le Mans, “when an Italian is in the room, everybody speaks Italian”.

It’s true, more or less. When Spaniards and Italians gather in the paddock, they invariably speak Italian. Johann Zarco speaks Italian. Jack Miller speaks English as if he were Italian. Italian is the Lingua Franca of the MotoGP paddock, and without at least a working knowledge of it, it is hard to survive.