{"id":614998,"date":"2026-04-18T12:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T12:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/614998\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T12:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T12:10:12","slug":"is-ducati-more-affected-by-worldsbk-fuel-flow-changes-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/614998\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Ducati more affected by WorldSBK fuel flow changes in 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">Nicolo Bulega has suggested that changes made to Ducati\u2019s WorldSBK machine for 2026 have had an impact on the way it is affected by fuel flow changes.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The Italian was fastest on the opening day of running at round three of the 2026 season in the Netherlands and led an all-Ducati top-three.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The Dutch Round is the first one this year to take place after fuel flow changes have been applied. The fuel flow regulation was first introduced last year as a way to balance the performance of the machines in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/wsbk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">World Superbike<\/a>, with an algorithm dictating which manufacturers should be penalised by having their maximum fuel flow reduced after every two rounds.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Ducati and BMW were penalised on every occasion during last season, but finished second and first, respectively, in the championship. They both finished the season with 45kg\/h of maximum fuel flow.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">After round two of 2026, BMW still has 45kg\/h, but Ducati has been reduced to 44.5kg\/h after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/wsbk\/racer\/1043899\/nicolo-bulega\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nicolo Buelga<\/a> won all six of the races in 2026 so far. Bimota was also penalised after Portimao, dropping to 45.5kg\/h.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Last year, Bulega spoke of how the Ducati felt less clean at low engine speeds when the fuel flow was reduced. The Italian says that this year he can \u201cfeel\u201d the fuel flow reduction compared to Portimao and Phillip Island and suggests that the specification of this year\u2019s bike is a factor.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI feel [the fuel flow reduction], especially because we had to change the gearbox compared to last year, also the swingarm is different,\u201d Bulega told WorldSBK.com when asked if he can notice the reduction while riding.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cLast year I had a good feeling with the bike and now I\u2019m at 85 or 90 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWe have to try to search a little bit everywhere, also because the bike is new, so it changed a little bit, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/wsbk\/racer\/995269\/iker-lecuona\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Iker Lecuona<\/a> said he feels it mostly at higher engine speeds, but added his lack of experience with fuel flow changes \u2013 coming from Honda last year \u2013 means it\u2019s hard for him to judge.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI feel [it] a little bit, honestly, in the high-RPM,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cBut I don\u2019t have enough experience to say \u2018Here I struggle\u2019 or not.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cOf course, we need to adjust many things on the electronics side, but for me it\u2019s nothing crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nicolo Bulega has suggested that changes made to Ducati\u2019s WorldSBK machine for 2026 have had an impact on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[6910,64,63,234256,806,805,803,804,6909,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-614998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-aruba-it-racing-ducati","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-iker-lecuona","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\/614998","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=614998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}