Nicolo Bulega confirms 2025 plans: ‘Next year I will stay here’

Winner of the first race this season, making him the first WorldSBK rider to achieve that feat as a WorldSSP champion, Nicolo Bulega has continued to impress as he leads the championship standings after two rounds (six races).

Bulega has not only shown the type of consistency that rookies find difficult, but the speed and ability to battle against established stars such as team-mate Alvaro Bautista and Toprak Razgatlioglu has been extremely impressive to watch.

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Tipped by many to be strong as a rookie, Bulega has exceeded expectations as he looks to continue his current run of form at Assen.

“I think now is the best moment because I’m in a very good team,” Bulega told WorldSBK.com. “I feel strong on the bike, and I feel that I can be competitive; for a rider, this is very important.

“They brought me from Moto2 and I was in a bad moment. I didn’t enjoy riding bikes anymore, but they believed in me, and they gave me a second chance.

“They gave me a really good package and bike, they always believed in me and tried to give me the perfect bike every weekend.”

While discussing his journey so far with Ducati, Bulega, to no surprise, intends to stay with the Borgo Panigale factory.

“It was very important for me to join this team two years ago,” added Bulega. “We are growing up together. I found a very good team, next year I will stay here.

“I will try to, I don’t know about fighting for the championship, stay in front and then we’ll see. 

“I always say you have pressure when you’re in a bad position, like I was two years ago. That time, I had pressure.

“When you’re in a good team, you have a good bike and when results are coming, you don’t feel pressure.”

While Bulega has joined the Aruba.it Ducati team during a period where Bautista has not been his usual dominant self, being alongside a double world champion would be difficult for most riders, let alone rookies.

But Bulega has maintained the stance that focusing on what bautista does is not his priority.

“When you arrive in a new category, and your teammate is the world champion, they’re always the first one you want to beat but not for me,” began Bulega.

“If you ask every rider, it’s always the same. Alvaro is a very good guy. We’re in a very different situation.

“I’m happy to share the garage with him because he’s very fast. I like it when you have a teammate who is fast because you want to do more.

“It’s nice to have a two-time world champion in the box. Phillip Island didn’t change anything.

“I won just one race, Alvaro is a two-time champion, so I have to learn a lot from him.”

‘I already won a race, I would like more’ 

Bulega’s adaptation to WorldSBK has been arguably the biggest storyline this season, along with Toprak Razgatlioglu becoming a winner with BMW so early on.

Discussing his expectations prior to the season but also now that he’s become a Superbike race winner, Bulega admitted they have changed significantly.

Bulega said: “I think that, at the beginning of the season, if I was in the top ten as a rookie, it was a good result.

“I already won a race so I would like to win some more. It’s too early to understand what I can do until the end of the season.

“I would like to stay in front in a lot of races and try to be on the podium. I don’t care too much about the final results because I’m only in my first year, so I want to enjoy every race.

I have no pressure because it’s my first year. I just have to learn. If I can beat my rivals like in Australia it's nice but if I can’t, it’s not a problem, because it’s my first year.”