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The first image is of him sitting silently on a bench at Bergamo Orio al Serio airport. Sunday, January 22, 2022: he was waiting for his flight to Faro, from there he would later reach Portimao for his first test with the Panigale V2: "Hi, nice to meet you, I'm Nicolò." A handshake, a few words, not one more, both of us aware that more than that we had not much more to say as we did not know each other.
Nicolò was opening up to a new world, all to be discovered, after years of hardship accrued in the MotoGP paddock. Yet his fame was well known: labeled Valentino Rossi's heir and overexposed in the media, his star soon faded to the point of vanishing into thin air.
Several times Nicolò told us about those moments of suffering: "I reached a point in my life where everything became difficult, even just going out for a pizza ," he told us, "going to races had become a burden, in fact I couldn't wait to go home."
In the World Superbike paddock Nicolò experienced a double rebirth: the first from a sporting point of view, thanks to the results accrued on the track, the second human, allowing him to be known for who he is.
Listening to the rumors coming from the other paddock, many were pointing to Bulega as a bit of a show-off, a bit cocky. At the same time, others were calling him a goner, ready to hang up his helmet. On the subject, the man himself was clear: "I know that I often come across as obnoxious and maybe I can even pass as cocky," he told us at the Cremona tests, "sometimes this image of me leaks out simply because I am closed with people I don't know and I don't tend to give confidence. Also, I don't like being in the spotlight."
Those spotlights under which he ended up at the age of only 16, without even wanting to, Nicolo has turned them off these past three years, keeping his head down and making himself known for what he is, which is a guy who is only interested in doing one thing, racing. Nothing more, nothing else... He has been able to calculate every single word, weighing and dosing it, while avoiding ending up in futile controversies: an example may be the controversy last year over the Panigale V2, considered a Superbike, or what happened with Marc Marquez this year at WDW.
Several times over the course of this season, we have tried in a good-natured way to provoke him by asking, "Don't you think Bautista suffers your pressure? Or, "Don't you think Bautista doesn't accept being behind you?" He smilingly replied, "This is a bastard question, but I'm not giving you the headline you want."
And so, even if he doesn't give us the headline, we settle for when on race Thursday we meet in Aruba Hospitality over a plate of pasta together with his life partner Camilla Bilancioni (the one who never left him alone in difficulties and was always there), his crew chief Tommaso Raponi and Serafino Foti. That's a chance to see the real Bulega, who for the occasion takes off his helmet and puts on his journalist's outfit to beat us and test us: "So Guglielmetti, the market? What's Bautista going to do: quit or continue? I read your piece, you made a really good fucking headline." Of course you have to keep up with Nicolò, as Toprak does on the track, answering him blow by blow between jokes and smiles until the coffee before the goodbyes...
Yeah, the smile, the one that acts as a common denominator and that Nicolò can finally show off in the paddock. Maybe he won't win the World Superbike Championship against Toprak, but for sure Nicolò won a bigger victory, his personal one, which is to make himself known for who he is by turning off the spotlights.
On his 25th birthday, besides wishing him well, we look forward to a great final battle of this World Championship at Jerez against Toprak.
In Estoril, shortly after Race 2, we asked him provoking him for the umpteenth time, "Oh, do you think you can win the World Championship at Jerez on Sunday?" He answered us with the middle finger, convinced though that he will try!
