Lightweight Álvaro Bautista (Ducati) calls for an end to discrimination

When Álvaro Bautista won the 2022 and 2023 Superbike World Championships with 16 and 27 victories respectively, some of his rivals cited the Spaniard’s low body weight as a contributing factor, as the Ducati V4R ridden by the now 41-year-old clearly accelerated better than those of his competitors. The FIM responded by introducing a combined minimum weight, meaning Bautista now has to carry an additional seven kilograms of ballast on his motorbike, which affects both acceleration and braking.

The rule is having an effect: since then, the two-time Superbike World Champion has managed to secure just four of his total of 63 victories!

“It’s impossible to cope with this. You can’t argue away seven kilograms,” Bautista exclaimed in conversation with SPEEDWEEK.com editor-in-chief Ivo Schützbach. “Even if I were to win a race, the fact is that I’d be better off without this extra weight. That’s physics. If a motorbike is heavier, it’s harder to control, and that makes it more difficult. Because I need more metres to slow the bike down, it’s also more dangerous in the event of a crash. And not just for me, but also for the marshals and everyone behind the barriers. You really shouldn’t stand there in the critical zones anymore. It’s not safe and it’s not fair either – all the riders agree with me.”

Although Bautista finished third in the World Championship in 2025 with 21 top-three results, he lost his place in the Aruba.it Ducati factory team to Iker Lecuona and is racing this year for the customer team Barni Racing. There, however, he finds himself in eighth place in the World Championship, overshadowed by his team-mate Yari Montella, who is third overall after the seventh round of the season.

Perhaps Nicolò needs to be reined in?

Alvaro Bautista

Strange: although Nicolò Bulega has won every single one of the 21 races so far this year, nobody is calling for the Italian to be reined in. This also reinforces Bautista’s view.

“I don’t know why they’re implementing this rule, especially as it doesn’t work. Ducati keeps winning because of the bike. If they were to scrap it, the result would probably be the same – only the order of the riders would be different,” emphasised the veteran. “The other manufacturers need to improve their bikes, because I’m not the only Ducati rider. The rules should be limited to the manufacturers, not the riders. It’s one thing to sit at a desk and write the rules, but quite another to be on a motorbike, battling for position and having to deal with them at 300 km/h. I stand by my view: seven kilograms of ballast is dangerous on a Superbike.”

Bautista continued: “And if you were to fit seven kilograms to Nicolò’s bike as well, the effect would be different. He’s taller, heavier and can react to it differently with his body, whilst I’m limited by my height. So it’s the weight combined with my ability to counterbalance that weight with my body. Now that Nicolò’s winning everything, perhaps we should rein him in a bit!?”