Alvaro Bautista on his worst season: Nobody knew what was going on

In 2019, Alvaro Bautista joined the Superbike World Championship, immediately finishing as runner-up on a Ducati, before going on to experience two unsuccessful years (finishing third three times) with the Honda works team. In 2022, he returned to Ducati with a change of heart, became world champion twice and finished third in the world championship in both 2024 and 2025. Then his time with Aruba came to an end and the 41-year-old joined the privateer team Barni Spark.

The 2026 Superbike World Championship got off to a decent start for Alvaro at one of his favourite circuits, Phillip Island in Australia; in the second race, he stormed onto the podium in third place. It was to be his only podium finish of the season. He went on to finish fourth on five further occasions – three times at Assen and twice at the season finale in Jerez.

“Outsiders don’t know what problems we have in the pits or what we’re trying to do,” Bautista began. “From the outside, you only ever see the results and never the full picture. For this year, I had to change everything: the team, the bike – we had no points of reference. Unfortunately, this bike (Ducati introduced a new homologation model for 2026 – the author) is designed for taller riders; it wasn’t like in 2019, when I arrived and was immediately very fast. I struggled because all the Ducati riders were fast, except me. So we had to work hard. We knew our potential and wanted to be up front right from the start. The fact that we weren’t there meant we wanted to find something magical. We wanted to be up front from one practice session to the next, but that sort of thing doesn’t exist in motorcycling.”

Bautista was looking for a magical solution

“It got worse with every race,” the 63-time race winner continued during his meeting with SPEEDWEEK.com. “At Assen, the bike was set up in such a way that I could deliver consistent performances. But we wanted to move further up the field, and instead it got worse and worse and worse. The feeling got worse, and my confidence in the bike dwindled. Right up until Magny-Cours in September, we tried something different every day; the bike was constantly changing. And by ‘different’, I don’t mean a different fork spring, but major changes like a different frame. After the summer break, we took the solution I felt was the lesser of two evils as our basis. My confidence gradually returned; when something was clear, we could try something that helped me in a specific area. That’s how we took it step by step. As our performance improved, so did our results.”

In racing today, every detail counts.

Alvaro Bautista

Bautista concluded: “I didn’t know the team and they didn’t know me – that’s not easy. We didn’t have any winter tests because of all the rain. The only test where it didn’t rain was in Misano in May, but I’d just had an operation on my ankle – so I missed it. That’s how the year went. You have to be patient rather than trying to ride fast. In motor racing today, every little detail counts if you want to be at the top.”

It remains to be seen whether Bautista rode his final race in the Superbike World Championship in Jerez in mid-October. He is not on the 2027 starting grid, but there is a possibility he could join the Chinese manufacturer CF Moto, which aims to be competing by the 2027 finale in Shanghai at the end of October at the latest.

Teams & Riders, 2027 Superbike World Championship: