Marc Marquez on the No. 93 Ducati at the Red Bull Ring in September. Photo: Lukas Raich via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
On the last lap of the 2024 Lenovo Race of Champions at Misano, Marc Márquez and Nicolò Bulega were fighting for third. Bulega ended up in the gravel, unhurt, and Márquez took the position, as the official MotoGP.com report records. It was a Ducati fan-festival race, the kind of event where the trophy is a souvenir and the grudge is optional.
That crash is the easy story to retell, and by now the least useful one. The useful one is what Ducati has built for 2027: both riders on Desmosedicis in the new 850cc era, and a structure that will make their comparison messier than the headlines will admit. My argument is simple. Márquez is the wrong yardstick for Bulega’s rookie year. The better one will be sitting in the other half of his own garage.
Who is where in 2027
Márquez stays at the Ducati Lenovo Team through at least 2028, alongside Pedro Acosta, according to MotoGP.com’s 2027 line-up. He is also still busy with his 2026 title fight, so 2027 is a long way off for him. Bulega, confirmed on 9 September, goes to the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team on a Ducati Desmosedici GP, with Fermín Aldeguer as his teammate. Our full breakdown of the 2027 grid has the rest of the board.
The tester in the customer garage
Ducati has been open about what Bulega is for. After his two-race stand-in for Márquez at the end of 2025, Davide Tardozzi said Bulega “will be the guy who will develop the bike” for the 850cc era. Ducati has also been moving people between its two paddocks on purpose; Franco Morbidelli’s switch the other way is part of the same shuffle.
So the rider Ducati trusted to shape the 850 will race it for a VR46 team, while the rider the factory is built around races it in factory colours. That is not a scandal. It is smart. Ducati gets two reference points on its own machine, inside its own system. My read is that Ducati gains the most from this arrangement, and Bulega carries the risk: his results will be taken as a verdict on the bike’s development and on him at the same time. Whether the two garages will run identical parts week to week is something Ducati has not spelled out, and it is worth watching.
What the résumé proves, and what it does not
The résumé is enormous. Bulega clinched the 2026 WorldSBK title at Cremona on 27 September, finished on 726 points to Iker Lecuona’s 563, and won his last race in the series at Jerez on 18 October. That was his 52nd WorldSBK victory, level with Troy Bayliss for fifth on the all-time list. WorldSBK’s own season review also notes that he benefited from Toprak Razgatlıoğlu leaving for MotoGP.
MotoGP is a different job. Tardozzi himself pointed to the adjustment to Michelin tyres and carbon brakes, and Bulega’s two 2025 MotoGP weekends are a small sample: he scored a point with fifteenth at Portimão, and Ducati’s own report has him fifteenth again at Valencia. Useful experience, but not evidence of where he will sit on an 850.
The comparison that actually matters
Márquez will be the name in every headline. Aldeguer is the real control: same team, same crew, same tyres, same weekend, and a rider who already knows the Ducati. Bulega’s first 850cc season will be judged against Márquez in public and against Aldeguer in private, and the private one will tell VR46 and Ducati much more.
So the watch list for the winter is short. How big is the gap to Aldeguer on the first Michelin runs? How quickly does Bulega’s name appear near the factory Ducatis on the timesheets? And does anyone cut a tester-turned-rookie slack, or does the bike’s development get blamed for every off day? The gravel at Misano in 2024 is a footnote. The lap times will be the story.
Lead image: Marc Márquez on the No. 93 Ducati at the Red Bull Ring. Photo: Lukas Raich via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
About the Author
