{"id":116160,"date":"2025-11-03T20:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T20:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/116160\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T20:09:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T20:09:07","slug":"podcast-what-to-expect-from-a-forgotten-vr46-proteges-motogp-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/116160\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast: What to expect from a forgotten VR46 protege\u2019s MotoGP debut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ducati will field a new star on the MotoGP grid for the first time at the Portuguese Grand Prix, as it gives Nicolo Bulega his debut in the premier class.<\/p>\n<p>The Italian manufacturer has been left with a major hole to fill in its factory line-up, after seven-time world champion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/1654\/marc-marquez\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marc Marquez<\/a> suffered a season-ending shoulder injury last month.<\/p>\n<p>For the Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/teams\/ducati-lenovo-team\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ducati<\/a> drafted in test rider Michele Pirro to deputise on the No.93\u2019s side of the garage.<\/p>\n<p>Following a test at Jerez last week, Ducati has now greenlit World Superbike star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/wsbk\/racer\/1043899\/nicolo-bulega\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nicolo Bulega<\/a> to fill in for Marquez at the final two rounds of the 2025 MotoGP season.<\/p>\n<p>Bulega\u2019s path to the MotoGP starting grid is a winding one. A former protege of Valentino Rossi\u2019s VR46 Academy, his time in Moto2 and Moto3 failed to live up to the potential he had.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>A side step to the World Superbike paddock in 2022 with Ducati in World Supersport energised his career, with Bulega a world champion in Supersport in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>He made his World Superbike debut in 2024 with Ducati and won first time of asking in his debut weekend. He has been runner-up in the championship the last two years.<\/p>\n<p>Remaining a Ducati rider in World Superbikes for next year, Bulega will become part of the brand\u2019s MotoGP test roster with a view to 2027 development and a potential race seat at one of its teams.<\/p>\n<p>Before that, he will make his MotoGP debut at Portimao aboard the GP25.<\/p>\n<p>On this week\u2019s Crash MotoGP Podcast, the team discuss what to expect from Bulega on his debut.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>They also look elsewhere on the grid and try to predict the pecking order for this weekend\u2019s 21st round of the season.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/shows.acast.com\/60880ee0701a181d53b0da88\/episodes\/69089660a4118b197cf7fac0?\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Download the Crash MotoGP Podcast Here<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s big news,\u201d Crash MotoGP Editor Peter McLaren said. \u201cNormally, when we get these replacements, especially at Ducati in recent years, it\u2019s been [riders] at the other end of their MotoGP careers: Iannone, Pirro, Petrucci, Bautista, guys who are coming back as something of a present. They\u2019re not trying to launch a full-time career, whereas this is very different with Bulega. He\u2019s already on that path to a \u201927 Ducati MotoGP seat. He\u2019s got the chance to build over six days on track. He had the test behind closed doors at Jerez, the weather wasn\u2019t too good. Maybe 30 laps, I heard high 1m39s maybe. So, that\u2019s a couple of seconds off the pace. It\u2019s an interesting situation for him because he\u2019s been thrown into the deep end, getting on Marc Marquez\u2019s bike, the championship-winning bike. He\u2019s got to resist the urge to push too hard\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ducati will field a new star on the MotoGP grid for the first time at the Portuguese Grand&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[38138,111,139,82591,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-116160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ducati","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nicolo-bulega","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}