Ducatis are dominating superbike racing in 2026. Niccolo Bulega is currently undefeated after seven rounds and 21 races of the Superbike World Championship, while in the British championship (BSB) Kyle Ryde and Scott Redding lead the way, having won all but one race between them. With that sort of success, it’s no wonder we’re likely to see a number of teams switch to the Bologna bullets in 2027.
The supremacy comes on the back of the introduction of a new Panigale V4 R, which enhances the strengths of the outgoing model while addressing its weaknesses. No-one ever doubted the V4’s ability to make big power figures, but its chassis was sometimes considered inferior to some. Its performance in long hanging corners was considered to be a limitation, with the Yamaha R1, in particular, able to get the power down better and carry more speed onto the straights.
But the 2026 Ducati has addressed that issue and then some. The switch from a single sided to double sided swingarm may not be aesthetically pleasing for some, but it’s probably the single most important factor in helping Ducati riders get all that power down, especially in BSB where the more restrictive electronics regulations place a premium on mechanical grip generated by the chassis.
Of course, motorcycle racing tends to be cyclical, with certain manufacturers enjoying periods of dominance while others spend a few years on struggle street. Who’d have thought that Honda, utterly dominant for over 30 years from the 1980s, would be scrapping around at the bottom on the top 10 in MotoGP these days, beating only Yamaha – the manufacturer who shared titles with them throughout their golden era?
But, in superbikes, one constant has been Ducati. In 30 years of BSB racing, the Italian manufacturer has powered riders to the title 12 times. Ten championships have been won on Yamahas, with the remaining eight shared between Honda (four), Kawasaki (three) and Suzuki, whose sole title win came in the hands of John Reynolds in 2004.
Historically Ducatis were always expensive to buy and run. The V-twin 998s which rose to prominence in the late 1990s were factory bikes built by Ducati’s race shop, Ducati Corse, and had eyewateringly short service intervals – with engine rebuilds both expensive and frequent. It led to a period of ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ where the handful of Ducati runners were almost in a race of their own against the 750cc fours. Troy Bayliss (1999), Neil Hodgson (2000), John Reynolds (2001), Steve Hislop (2002) and Shane Byrne (2003) gave Ducati a five-year streak of BSB titles, and the V-twins remained competitive in a new era of 1000cc four-cylinder superbikes.
Honda arrived with a works Fireblade in 2004, but Ducati twins would win a further four titles between 2005 and 2017. The switch to the Panigale V4 has brought three more titles for the Bologna brand: Scott Redding in 2019, Josh Brookes in 2020 and Tommy Bridewell in 2023, and the past seven seasons have been a battle between Ducati and Yamaha – with the R1 edging it with four titles in that period.
What’s more significant is that the latest Ducati appears more accessible to private teams than ever before. Historically superbikes are converted road bikes and smaller teams have gone for inline fours as they’ve been cheaper to buy, build and run than a factory built Ducati race bike. Again, it’s been cyclical, with Kawasakis, Suzukis, BMWs and Hondas all having had their spell as the privateer’s weapon of choice. Honda is currently the most popular bike on the BSB grid, thanks to the Fireblade’s 200bhp performance out the box and good support from the Honda Racing UK team, but it’s looking like the new Ducati could well be the next machine to dominate the grid, as well as the podium.
This year Storm Stacey’s Bathams AJN Racing team made a bold move to switch from BMW to Ducati, not by buying a ready-prepared race bike from Ducati Corse but by purchasing a Panigale V4 R streetbike (which is price capped at £39,000 to meet homologation rules) and converting it to a race bike in their own workshops, using a series of parts developed in house and with local suppliers.
What’s more, last week TAG Racing announced they’ll be switching from Honda to Ducati for 2027, having purchased some Panigale V4 R road bikes to convert into racers, while Andrew Irwin’s MET fonaCAB Racing team rocked up at Snetterton with a new Panigale V4 R to replace their 2025 model Ducati Corse V4 R.
With six Panigales on the grid at Snetterton, Ducatis made up a quarter of the BSB field, as big a chunk of the grid as the Bologna bikes have ever had. Only Honda, with 11, has more.
Stacey has proved this ‘private’ Ducati is a competitive package and despite having a nightmare at Snetterton, where he failed to finish all three races with mechanical issues, the potential is clear. He was fastest of the V4s in qualifying and was right in contention for a podium when an oil cooler failed spectacularly in race one. Two further mechanical DNFs meant he left Norfolk with no points, but it feels like only a matter of time before the top-hatted 23-year-old stands on the podium.
Although a ‘stock’ Ducati costs almost twice as much as a Fireblade, its extra performance out of the crate makes it a natural choice for BSB teams looking to challenge for the podium. We spoke to John McAvoy of the Michael Rutter-run Bathams AJN Racing team to find out the differences between their converted road bikes and a factory built Ducati Corse machine, and he told us he wouldn’t be surprised to see more teams following their direction.
He said: “We enquired about buying a ‘Corse’ bike but, as well as being too late to place the order, we felt that along with our technical partners, Talos Designs and SRS Developments in particular, we would have the freedom to innovate and tailor the bikes chassis exactly to Storm’s feedback as a way to potentially gain an advantage over the Corse bikes which are fundamentally all the same. It gives us complete freedom. Storm is a tall rider and needs a lot of space in his riding position. His seat is quite low and (his) handlebars quite high, which we were able to design in from the very start and experiment with. At our first test, we tried six different seat positions (in terms of) height and angles, three different fuel tank profiles and four different tank designs, changing where the fuel is located in full and low loads.”
A quick look at pictures of Stacey’s bike alongside Ryde’s Ducati Corse built machine visually highlights the differences between the two motorcycles, most visibly the fuel tank, exhaust and swingarm designs. The AJN Bathams team believes that the potential of their machine has still to be fully realised, and they have plenty of development work to carry out, including the introduction of a new swingarm later this year.
McAvoy continued: “The concept behind our bike is different to the Corse bikes in so much as it’s tailor made for one person. The Corse bikes are beautiful things and Ducati have poured all their knowledge and experience into making the V4 R into a dominant bike in WSB and BSB – they are the best in the business right now, no question. In terms of hardware, only our frame, engine and electronics are the same.
The exhaust is different, and we’re still running a modified road swingarm just now, but our final one will be different to theirs. We’re still developing the bike and learning what makes it tick. All the sensors on Storm’s bike are road bike sensors which the Corse bikes don’t use, plus our fuel tank, subframes, radiators, footrests all the brackets, yokes, handlebars, seat unit, footrests and hangers are all made here in the UK, by Talos, just for our bike and to give Storm the bike he’s most comfortable on. We also use Dymag wheels and K-Tech suspension, which probably makes our Ducati the most British Ducati on the planet!”
Of course, turning a highly complex road bike into a BSB racer hasn’t been easy, as some of the glitches prove. One of the biggest appeals of running a Honda is the easy availability of well proven parts to turn a stock Fireblade into a competitive racer, but that’s not really the case with the Panigale V4 R. While Ducati make completed race bikes available to customers, they don’t make a specific race kit to convert their bike to BSB spec.
That’s meant Storm’s team have been forced to think out of the box when it comes to bike development. They continue: “The exhaust was a challenge due to the location of the larger fuel tank (required for BSB), but starting with an off the shelf Arrow system, we came up with a solution which loosely mimics a MotoGP system in so much as the rear two cylinders exit pretty much in a straight line to the tail unit, and the front two cylinders also have a straight-ish route to exit behind the right footpeg.
Cooling has also been a challenge, but we’re on top of that now with some bespoke made radiators from Talos, and the adaptation of the MoTeC electronics (BSB’s standardised system) has been very time consuming. All the other elements have been tricky too, but nothing we probably wouldn’t have had if we’d gone with Yamaha. The exhaust, cooling and electronics were specific challenges to the Ducati, and lead times on aftermarket and Corse parts are huge – which is frustrating.”
Despite their tricky start to the campaign, which has seen the team ironing out a number of glitches in testing and the races, the AJN Bathams Racing team has been right at the sharp end of the 2026 British Superbike Championship. At the time of writing Storm lies ninth in the championship, with a pair of fourth place finishes to his name. For a private team developing a new bike from scratch, it’s a remarkable achievement.
Asked if he expects to see even more Ducatis lining up in 2027, McAvoy seems to think it’s inevitable, adding: “I’d be amazed if they don’t. Especially if and when Storm starts getting on the podium. In theory, many if not all of the components that we have developed with our technical partners will be available to purchase from them in due course.”
Indeed Stacey’s team purchased a £25,000 ‘works’ engine from Ducati Corse and fitted it for last weekend’s Snetterton round – but the rider was left scratching his head after Friday’s practice, when he declared it slower than the home tuned motor he’d been running up to that point. Today’s Ducatis are so good out of the showroom, and a far cry from the expensive to run V-twins of yesteryear, that it feels BSB is entering a new era. While no one is suggesting the latest Dukes don’t cost a fortune, they are more accessible than ever.
With so much potential and an aftermarket industry in race parts starting to appear, we think the AJN Bathams Racing squad have started a trend which will see the Panigale become BSB’s privateer weapon of choice for a number of years to come. As Rob Winfield, team owner of TAG Racing, says: "Motorsport is all about evolution, and we believe the Ducati Panigale V4 R gives us the opportunity to take the next step in our development as a team. We've been hugely impressed with the package available to us and we can’t wait to begin this new chapter in 2027."
Words: Paul Taylor
Photos: Impact Images/team supplied
