- Six wins from six races for Nicolo Bulega in 2026, and all from pole.
- Records there for the taking: consecutive wins, most poles, and more.
- Some will fall, others won’t, but here’s our prediction on each one.
Only two rounds into the 2026 WorldSBK season, and all signs already point to one reality: the Nicolo Bulega stranglehold.
Sweeping six wins from six races, all from pole position, last year’s runner-up shows no signs of letting up, and neither does his factory Ducati Panigale V4 R. But how much more dominant can this all-Italian juggernaut really become?
Toprak Razgatlıoğlu’s move to MotoGP was always going to make this season a foregone conclusion, but Bulega and his Aruba.it Racing squad now have the chance to break records by the bucketload.
Ones within touching distance of Bulega
The first one up the road for Bulega should be Razgatlıoğlu’s 13 consecutive WSBK wins set in 2024 and matched again last year. The former is currently sitting on 10 and needs a perfect Round 3 at Assen later this month, plus one more win to go past ‘El Turco’. We feel this one is going down, and soon.
The most obvious lofty target is former teammate Álvaro Bautista’s haul of 27 wins from 36 races in 2023 — a 75% conversion rate that felt unreachable at the time. Bulega can afford to finish second or lower in no more than eight of the remaining 30 races to claim it outright.
Our prediction? He gets to 29, and the only thing that stops him from going higher is him crashing out of the lead, not the bike or the opposition. In all likelihood, he’s set to pass Noriyuki Haga’s tally of 43 wins and take sixth on the all-time list.
Setting the most number of fastest laps in a season is a tricky one to predict. On one hand, Bautista’s mark of 23 seems easy enough to overhaul in 36 outings. At the same time, will Bulega, likely cruising unchallenged lights out to the chequered flag from pole, have extra motivation to set them, especially when there is no additional points incentive? We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, but only just.
The ones harder to crack
This record might be the most impressive one, if broken: most poles in a season. Ben Spies racked up 11 in 2009, but that was across 14 rounds. Bulega simply has no room for error with this one; he needs to go 12 in 12.
It’s important to note that the 26-year-old qualified at least second in 11 of the 12 Superpole sessions in 2025, and the man who usually beat him to P1 isn’t racing in WSBK anymore. Given the margin both he and Ducati have over the chasing pack, we feel he’ll blow our minds, and his opposition, on his way to qualifying perfection.
The podium record is a tougher ask still. Bear in mind that Jonathan Rea’s current benchmark of 34 podiums in 2019 was set across 37 races. Bulega missing out on the podium just once and getting there 35 out of 36 times seems a step too far. He’ll try, but we think the G.O.A.T. keeps this.
Toprak also holds the most hattricks — all three race wins in a round — with 11. Bulega has five so far in his career and needs seven more perfect rounds from the remaining 10 to own it by himself. Our verdict is that he levels with his former rival but no more this season.
By the end of the campaign, it’s quite possible that Nicolò Bulega finds WSBK less than a challenge and takes on bigger ones. Perhaps a MotoGP seat awaits him. Whatever the final tally, 2026 may well be the season that cements Bulega not just as a deserving first-time world champion, but as the man who began dismantling the most untouchable numbers in the series’ history.
