Who will be the rider to join Fermin Aldeguer at VR46 next season? With Fabio Di Giannantonio moving to KTM, the hot topic in the Barcelona paddock is precisely who will be the Spaniard’s future teammate.
One of the names that has emerged in recent days is certainly Nicolò Bulega, who this year became a Ducati test rider alongside Michele Pirro.
The current Aruba rider has already embarked on this new adventure: last week, he made his debut at Mugello on the 850, the MotoGP bike of the future.
Everyone can see the momentum Nicolò is building. He dominates in Superbike, and his clear goal is to make the big leap to MotoGP in 2027. While the doors seemed firmly shut just a few weeks ago, a glimmer of hope now appears to have opened, especially following Di Giannantonio’s decision to join KTM.
Apparently, the most viable path leads right to VR46, where it all began in 2013, when his father Davide signed an agreement with the Academy’s then-external consultant, Davide Brivio, to bring Nicolò into Valentino Rossi’s newly formed team.
For his part, Valentino never had any doubts about Bulega’s talent. In Jerez, in 2016, after his first pole position, he said: “Nicolò has incredible talent: it took him five races to get the pole, whereas it took me nine.”
In those years, Nicolò seemed like the Doctor’s designated heir, even reminding some of his exuberance. Emblematic was what happened in Qatar, when, referring to Fenati, he declared: “I don’t know why he got angry; maybe he’s pissed off because he was getting beaten by me.”
Words that echoed the famous spat between Rossi and Biaggi in 2002.
The story, however, had a different ending than initially expected. In 2019, Bulega and the Academy parted ways. Eight years later, though, many things have changed, both on and off the track.
Today, Nicolò is a different rider: more mature, reserved, out of the spotlight, and capable of forging his own identity without mimicking others’ behavior.
Furthermore, thanks to what has been a true comeback campaign spearheaded by Aruba, in the World Superbike Championship Bulega has finally shown the talent and promise that Valentino had always believed in.
The opportunity for their paths to cross again now seems just around the corner, almost as if it were a promise left unfulfilled.
At this point, however, a question naturally arises: Do Ducati and VR46 really need Bulega in MotoGP?
As always, every choice involves a sacrifice. With the arrival of Marc Marquez, Ducati had to revise part of its strategy, first letting go of Pramac and then, over time, riders of the caliber of Martin, Bastianini and Bezzecchi. Starting next season, Alex Marquez, Di Giannantonio and Bagnaia will also join the list.
Keeping them all was impossible. At the same time, however, Aldeguer has joined the red team, and in a few months Pedro Acosta—the prized asset of the MotoGP market—will arrive.
Ducati now finds itself at a crucial crossroads, because at stake is not only the present but, above all, the long-term future—especially as the team waits to see what Marc Marquez’s actual physical condition will be in the years to come.
In a market that currently offers few alternatives, Bulega could therefore be the wild card to pull out of the hat.
In his favour, Nicolò has the advantage of age, as well as the fact that he can arrive better prepared than the others, having already begun testing the future Desmosedici.
As if that weren’t enough, over the past three years he has demonstrated the consistency in results that Ducati currently lacks—always on the podium, and even coming close to the world title last season against Toprak, had his Panigale not let him down twice at Assen.
Finally, in addition to the motivational aspect, there is also the financial one: it is hard to imagine that Bulega would demand exorbitant figures just to secure his long-awaited move to MotoGP, as perhaps some of his colleagues might.
These are all factors that could work in favor of the #11, and to this we add one more: in a MotoGP that looks to the future, we wonder if the time has perhaps come to broaden our horizons a bit, just as Yamaha did with the choice of Toprak—that is, to try something new, without limiting ourselves to looking only at our own backyard in the Moto2 paddock.
The question naturally arises: with Bastianini headed to Gresini, what else does this market have to offer?