{"id":594217,"date":"2026-04-08T21:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T21:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/594217\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T21:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T21:34:08","slug":"is-this-rider-set-to-be-the-biggest-loser-in-motogps-wild-2027-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/594217\/","title":{"rendered":"Is this rider set to be the biggest loser in MotoGP\u2019s wild 2027 market?"},"content":{"rendered":"

World Superbike\u2019s current dominator Nicolo Bulega\u2019s hopes of a MotoGP debut in 2027 look remote, with his manager confirming \u201cwe don\u2019t have any written offers\u201d right now.<\/p>\n

Next year\u2019s MotoGP grid is set to undergo one of the biggest shake-ups in recent memory, with numerous high-profile moves reported and a number of top rookies set to step up.<\/p>\n

Towards the end of last year, one rider who was being talked about as likely being among the rookie crop was World Superbike star Nicolo Bulega.<\/a><\/p>\n

Missing out on the world title to current Pramac Yamaha rider Toprak Razgatlioglu in 2025, Bulega made his debut with Ducati in MotoGP at the final two rounds of the MotoGP campaign in place of the injured Marc Marquez.<\/p>\n

Despite the steep learning curve, Bulega performed well, scoring points in both grands prix.<\/p>\n

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Ducati<\/a> has added him to its testing roster for 2026, as his knowledge of Pirelli tyres – which replace Michelin in 2027 in MotoGP – a vital asset in the development of the brand\u2019s 850cc bike.<\/p>\n

This all seemed to be building up to a full-time MotoGP step in 2027, likely at a Ducati satellite team.<\/p>\n

However, as of the beginning of April, Bulega\u2019s hopes of racing a Ducati looks to have vanished, while options elsewhere on the grid don\u2019t appear to have presented themselves.<\/p>\n

Many riders, few bikes, and Bulega is not \u2018a first choice\u2019<\/p>\n

Bulega\u2019s time in grand prix racing yielded nothing more than two podiums in Moto3, before he moved to the World Superbike paddock in 2022 to rebuild his career.<\/p>\n

He was dominant in year two of his World Supersport tenure with Ducati, winning the title and earning a World Superbike ride with the marque for 2024.<\/p>\n

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Runner-up in 2024 and 2025, Bulega looks poised to dominate the 2026 campaign, having won all six races from the first two rounds.<\/p>\n

However, despite more MotoGP seat time coming up in 2026 through testing, and his knowledge of Pirelli rubber, the 26-year-old\u2019s manager admits his grand prix aspirations are set to be put on hold.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs of today, we don\u2019t have any written offers,\u201d Bulega\u2019s manager Alberto Martinelli said during the Portugal WorldSBK weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking to everyone, but nothing is finalised. There are many riders and few bikes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201c[Bulega] isn\u2019t the first choice, otherwise he\u2019d already be in.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ducati\u2019s MotoGP roster looks like it will feature Marc Marquez and Pedro Acosta at its factory team, while Fermin Aldeguer is to be moved to VR46, with Fabio Di Giannantonio likely to stay put.<\/p>\n

Gresini, unhappy at Ducati\u2019s decision to relocate Aldeguer, is reported to have agreed a new deal to continue running the Italian brand\u2019s bikes.<\/a><\/p>\n

Alex Marquez is due to join KTM, but Gresini is set to bring Enea Bastianini back into its fold, while Dani Holgado will partner him.<\/p>\n

All of this effectively leaves Bulega out of the question for a Ducati ride, while the rest of the grid offers up scant opportunities for the Italian.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World Superbike\u2019s current dominator Nicolo Bulega\u2019s hopes of a MotoGP debut in 2027 look remote, with his manager…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,8456,806,805,803,804,6909,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-594217","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-motor","12":"tag-motor-sports","13":"tag-motosport","14":"tag-motosports","15":"tag-nicolo-bulega","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594217","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=594217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}