Nicolò Bulega has rediscovered the taste of victory

If the Nicolò Bulega of today were to meet the Nicolò Bulega of 2021 – the one who’d lost the will to race and thought he’d wasted his talent – would he slap him or give him a hug? “Perhaps both. First the slap, then the hug.” These few words alone would suffice to tell the story of Nicolò Bulega’s second lease of life – the young man who was destined to become the new Valentino Rossi, who at one point risked losing his way and who today, having won the Supersport and Superbike World Championships with Ducati, is ready to reclaim the MotoGP title that had once rejected him. “The Superbike chapter has come full circle, but now another one is opening straight away. Next year I’ll face the biggest challenge of my life.”

Bulega’s story is that of a rising star who kept his word – above all, the promise he made to himself. In 2021, he vowed he would return to MotoGP, even though everything seemed to be heading in the opposite direction. He swam against the tide. “It was the lowest point of my career. I didn’t feel like going to the races; I didn’t feel like packing my bags. I’d completely lost the desire. But mind you, not the desire to ride a motorbike. That never left me. I was simply fed up with not being able to get results.” A subtle but fundamental difference. He hadn’t stopped loving racing. He’d stopped loving defeat.

To understand how he reached this point, we need to go back even further. In the Bulega family, motorbikes are a family affair. His grandfather raced, his father Davide raced, and there is also a German mother who gave him his middle name, Jarod. “Which I never use. It probably only exists on Wikipedia,” Nicolò laughs. It was his mother, in fact, who would sometimes take him to training sessions. “My dad still had a team in the World Supersport Championship; he was always on the road and didn’t have time to take me to practice. So sometimes she’d take care of it. But I inherited my passion for racing from the men in my family.”

The first Bulega – the one who entered the MotoGP World Championship in 2016 – was a young rider on whom enormous expectations were pinned. He had grown up in Valentino Rossi’s orbit, and some had already decided he was destined to become his successor. A mantle that, rather than helping him, risked crushing him. “When I started out in the World Championship, everyone was saying I’d be the new Valentino. I certainly felt the weight of that a bit. It wasn’t easy, especially as the results weren’t coming and I felt almost obliged to win every race right from the first year. It put a lot of pressure on me.” His relationship with Rossi is now back to how it was in the good old days. “Vale always writes to me. He wrote to me after I won the World Championship and we’ve been in touch often. I’ve been back training at his Ranch for a couple of years now.” And after the title, Max Biaggi – the last Italian to win the Superbike title – also got in touch. “He wrote to me to congratulate me. It was very nice of him. Lots of people wrote to me; I was delighted.”

But the real change came when Bulega realised that talent alone wasn’t enough. “When I was younger, I used to neglect training a bit; I’d go to bed late and get up late. I wasn’t living the life of a proper athlete. Then I realised that making a few more sacrifices also brought better results.” Today, the lad who used to stay up late seems to belong to another era. “By ten o’clock in the evening I’m already in bed. I wake up at half past seven or eight, train and do everything I need to do. I don’t even consider them sacrifices anymore; it’s become my normal routine.”

It was Ducati, in particular, that got him back on track, through the Aruba team, which offered him a chance in Supersport in 2022. “It took a while. In my first year, I was putting in some good races and securing podium finishes, but I wasn’t yet utilising 100 per cent of my potential. Then I started believing in myself again, and the results followed.” The 2023 Supersport World Championship title was the turning point. “That’s when I really started to regain my confidence.” From that moment on, the journey became a long run-up to the top of Superbike.

Right up to a season that Bulega has no hesitation in describing as one of a kind. “We won almost every race, secured almost every pole position and set almost every fastest lap. It was a year that will be very hard to replicate, both for me and for those who come after me.” But more than the victories, what matters is the feeling of having reached the heights he had always believed he could reach. “I knew I still had a lot to prove and a lot to give. The problem was finding the right way to do it. You have to hit a few snags before you realise what you need to change.” Not least because “when you fall, it’s not easy to get back up. An athlete faces many difficulties, especially when things aren’t going well and you’re constantly under pressure. You have to find a solution as quickly as possible.”

Now MotoGP awaits him – the championship he had bid farewell to with the bitterness of someone who knew he hadn’t realised his full potential. He will be back on a Ducati (with VR46, Valentino’s team), but above all, he will find himself in a completely different world. “It’s the pinnacle of motorcycling, the toughest championship in the world. There are manufacturers who invest huge amounts of money and for whom MotoGP is their core business. It won’t be easy, but we’ll give it our all.”

The switch to the new regulations, with engine capacities reduced to 850cc and Pirelli tyres, could help him. Bulega has already been working on the Ducati of the future, but he doesn’t want to talk about the advantages. “Having tried it out and done a few test sessions has given me an idea of what lies ahead. However, this year I’ve been constantly switching between MotoGP tests and Superbike races, and even my mind has struggled to keep up with all these changes. The most important step will come when I move up to MotoGP and can stay there.” The man to beat will be Marc Márquez. Nicolò has no doubts: “At the moment, I think he’s the strongest.” And he doesn’t rule out the possibility that the Spaniard could break Valentino Rossi’s title record. “He has a realistic chance. He’s in the running for the World Championship and has another two years on his contract with Ducati. He’s got everything it takes to succeed.” If he could borrow something from the best? “Márquez, Martín and Bezzecchi have different qualities. Put them all together and you might end up with the perfect rider.”

To win, however, he has learnt that speed is only part of the job. “Only one person wins the World Championships. It’s won by whoever is the strongest and makes the fewest mistakes. It’s not enough just to be fast; you have to know how to put everything together at the right moment.” A lesson from someone who hit rock bottom before learning how to win.

Bulega’s new life also includes a special friend, Kimi Antonelli. The Mercedes rider and the Ducati rider live close by, in San Marino, and share something that goes beyond speed. “Kimi and I are in touch quite often. We meet up for dinner at home; sometimes we’ve gone bowling and we’ve gone karting together. On the simulator, however, we haven’t raced each other yet.” Two young Italians who are reshaping the landscape of motorsport. “At the end of the day, we share the same passion. Whether it’s cars or motorbikes, it’s always a love of engines.” And that tricolour flag they love to drape over their shoulders after a victory.