Nicolo Bulega heads into the Assen WorldSBK round feeling “completely different” in comparison to his debut outing at the circuit in 2024.
The Italian is the distant leader at the top of the championship with 29 points separating himself and defending champion Toprak Razgatlioglu.
Bulega’s past success has seen two wins and a pole position when he was in the junior categories, completing a dominant display back in 2023.
Ahead of the race weekend, speaking on Thursday’s press conference, Bulega began: “I feel good. Assen is a track that I like a lot and in WorldSSP, I won two races, had pole position, and it’s a track I like.
“Last year in WorldSBK wasn’t easy because the weather was difficult. I also had surgery on my arm last year, so was a bit difficult weekend.
“I feel completely different this year. So I will try to stay at the front, I always have fun here at Assen.
“I like the track for my riding style, I think it’s better than Portimao, but you can never be sure.”
Bulega commentated that he is also unsure what the new fuel rule changes mean for overall competitiveness, but his engineers have the best-placed knowledge to provide conclusive results.
Alvaro Bautista compares he and Bulega’s ‘confidence’ levels on the Ducati
Alvaro Bautista praised his 25-year-old teammate for his ability to extract the maximum performance out of the V4 R Panigale.
The two-time champion admitted that work still has to be done to compete with Bulega and BMW rider Toprak Razgatlioglu.
Following a turbulent start to the 2025 season, marked by crashes at Phillip Island and Portimao, Bautista finds himself fourth in the championship standings.
The 40-year-old is still finding his feet after a difficult 2024 season where he racked up only four race wins throughout the season.
“Nicolo’s [Bulega] very strong and he has a lot of confidence with the bike, and he can ride it at its best,” Bautista began.
“The most important is the feeling I have with the bike. I want to keep the feeling I had in Australia and Portimao.
“For me, I feel that I’m closing the gap but we’re not at the top with the feeling. We’re recovering it from two years ago.
“There’s not a big difference in the data, but some places, the big difference is the confidence he has with the bike.
“When we recover that confidence, we can be close and fight with him. It’s a track I’ve been fast at in the past, but every year is totally different.”
Bautista remains focused on optimising his feeling with the Ducati, revealing that results aren’t his main concern at this stage of the season.
“I don’t have any expectations about the results, but it will be nice if I can enjoy this racetrack like in the past. I’m not thinking about my future. Now, I’m recovering my confidence and I feel strong.”
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