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Yari Montella investigates: Why the Ducati factory riders are superior

Just as Ducati star Nicolò Bulega has remained unbeaten in the 2026 Superbike World Championship so far, Iker Lecuona has been shining with second-place finishes since Portimão. Yari Montella reveals what the factory riders are doing better.

Superbike WC

19.06.2026 - 15:08

This article is an automatically generated English version. The original article was published in German.

Iker Lecuona, Nicolo Bulega und Yari Montella (v.l.)
© Gold & Goose

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Before the start of the season, critical voices dominated, but the World Championship rounds so far have shown that the rule changes are delivering exactly what was hoped for: excitement right up to the final lap.

Ducati’s dominance in the 2026 Superbike World Championship is striking. Within the Ducati teams, the Aruba.it stars Nicolò Bulega and Iker Lecuona are, in turn, superior to the customer riders. The only occasion on which a privateer managed to squeeze in between the factory riders was at the season opener in Australia, when Ducati newcomer Lecuona still lacked sufficient experience with the V4R. Since then, the Italian and the Spaniard have taken first and second place in every race, as well as in the overall standings.

But what are the factory riders doing better? SPEEDWEEK.com asked Yari Montella, who finished third on the podium in all three races at his home race in Misano. His gap to triple winner Bulega – 14 seconds, 7 seconds and 14 seconds – works out at around 0.7 seconds per lap!

“We’re quite a long way behind the factory riders – even further behind Bulega than Lecuona,” says the Barni rider. “That’s mainly because they’re better at braking. If I need 100 metres to brake before a corner, they only need 90 metres at the same speed. I’m working on that, and my team is also looking for a solution to make progress in this area through different set-up and balance adjustments.”

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The V4Rs fielded by Barni Racing are technically comparable to the factory bikes. However, the engine braking settings are also important during the braking phase.

“We’re riding a Ducati too, of course, but the bikes aren’t exactly identical, and the rider is different as well. I think it’s a combination of several factors,” muses Montella. “When I analyse my riding style and compare it with that of the factory riders, we inevitably have to make some changes to the set-up as we adapt our riding style.”

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