One crash, one calculation
Nicolo Bulega will not take part in Monday’s 850cc Pirelli test at the Red Bull Ring. He said so this morning in Austria, where he had travelled after a heavy fall on Ducati’s 2027 prototype at Mugello earlier in the week.
He walked away from that one. The decision that followed has less to do with his ribs than with his arithmetic.
“I’m fine, just a knock,” Bulega told Sky Italia. “But I really want to win in Cremona and I don’t want to take any unnecessary risks, especially considering the weather these days in Austria.” Overnight rain had already left the circuit damp for Saturday’s final MotoGP practice, and the forecast offered him no reassurance.
Try it for $0.99.
A season with one blemish
The number that explains the caution is one. Bulega has been beaten exactly once in World Superbike this season, by his own Aruba.it Ducati team-mate Iker Lecuona at Donington Park. Everything else has gone his way, which is why the 2026 crown can be settled early at Cremona next weekend rather than dragged to the final round.
Throwing that position away on a development bike, on a cold and possibly wet Monday, would be a strange way to spend the week before a coronation.
The Italian has been juggling two jobs all year, racing for the WorldSBK title while feeding data back into Ducati’s MotoGP project. He joins Pertamina Enduro VR46 on the grid in 2027, so the 850cc machine he crashed at Mugello is the bike he will race for a living.
What he is missing on Monday
Monday’s outing is only the second official Pirelli test open to MotoGP race riders, after Brno in June, and the entry is thin. Two or three riders per manufacturer are expected, as was the case in Czechia.
Bulega has regularly been named the fastest man in private 850cc running, which makes his absence a genuine loss of reference for Ducati. The factory will have to read Monday’s numbers without its quickest yardstick.
Discover the rest of our MotoGP news on MathODDS!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply