{"id":337392,"date":"2025-12-09T15:16:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T15:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/337392\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T15:16:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T15:16:07","slug":"motogp-debut-didnt-lessen-title-defeat-disappointment-for-nicolo-bulega","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/337392\/","title":{"rendered":"MotoGP debut didn\u2019t lessen title defeat disappointment for Nicolo Bulega"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ducati\u2019s Nicolo Bulega admits the disappointment of missing out on the 2025 World Superbike title wasn\u2019t lessened by his MotoGP debut at the end of the season.<\/p>\n<p>The Italian rider came within touching distance of a maiden World Superbike title in October when he took <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/wsbk\/racer\/995265\/toprak-razgatlioglu\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Toprak Razgatlioglu<\/a> to the final race of the season.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/wsbk\/racer\/1043899\/nicolo-bulega\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nicolo Bulega<\/a> ultimately lost out to the Turkish superstar, whose third world title comes as he heads to MotoGP next season with Pramac Yamaha.<\/p>\n<p>Due to an injury for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/1654\/marc-marquez\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marc Marquez<\/a>, Bulega was called up by Ducati to replace him for the final two MotoGP rounds of the year, with the former VR46 Academy member scoring points in both events.<\/p>\n<p>Despite this massive moment in his career, Bulega admitted to Italy\u2019s GPOne that it did nothing to lessen his disappointment over losing the World Superbike crown.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe disappointment of missing out on the world title remains with me, because MotoGP didn\u2019t make me forget the championship,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCertainly, the opportunity to race in MotoGP was wonderful, but I keep it as a separate thing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLike I said, the disappointment for the title I didn\u2019t win is still there, but it\u2019s gone now, and all that\u2019s left to think about is 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Remaining in World Superbikes next year alongside his role as a Ducati MotoGP test rider, Bulega is the overwhelming favourite to win the title in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Bulega says \u201cit\u2019s pointless to hide\u201d this fact, but is wary of the rivals he will face still.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt pleases me to know that,\u201d he said of his title favourite status.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn fact, more than pressure, for me, it\u2019s motivation because it means that others think I\u2019m the most complete rider and the one to beat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the end, I think it\u2019s pointless to hide it. But, every year, the situation can change because there are new things, like [Iker] Lecuona with Ducati, [Danilo] Petrucci and [Miguel] Oliveira with BMW.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat said, nothing is a foregone conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bulega is expected to start testing the 2027 Ducati MotoGP bike in the summer of next year and is currently scheduled to do three outings on it, with the option for more to be discussed.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>This is all set to lead Bulega to a race seat with Ducati at one of its teams in 2027.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ducati\u2019s Nicolo Bulega admits the disappointment of missing out on the 2025 World Superbike title wasn\u2019t lessened by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,8456,5745,806,805,803,804,6909,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-337392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-ducati-lenovo-team","11":"tag-motogp","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-nicolo-bulega","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}