Nicolò Bulega

Nicolò Jarod Bulega (born 16 October 1999) is an Italian motorcycle racer, competing in the Superbike World Championship for the Ducati factory team, having won the 2023 Supersport World Championship with Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team by Feel Racing. He has also been a competitor in the CEV Moto3 Championship in 2014 and 2015, becoming Moto3 Junior World Champion in 2015. Prior to competing in the CEV, Bulega won the Italian and European MiniGP 50 championships, and was Italian champion in the PreGP 125 and PreGP 250 classes.

Nicolò Bulega
Bulega at Donington Park, 2024
Nationality	Italian
Born	(1999-10-16) 16 October 1999 Montecchio Emilia, Italy
Current team	Aruba.it Racing – Ducati
Bike number	11
Website	nicolobulega.com
Motorcycle racing career statistics Moto2 World Championship Active years 2019–2021 Manufacturers Kalex Championships 0 2021 championship position 26th (12 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 49 0 0 0 0 92 Moto3 World Championship Active years 2015–2018 Manufacturers KTM Championships 0 2018 championship position 26th (18 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 50 0 2 2 2 232 Superbike World Championship Active years 2024– Manufacturers Ducati Championships 0 2024 championship position 2nd (484 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 36 6 24 4 9 484 Supersport World Championship Active years 2022–2023 Manufacturers Ducati Championships 1 (2023) 2023 championship position 1st (503 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 48 16 30 10 14 745

He is the son of former Grand Prix motorcycle racer, Davide Bulega.

Career

Early career

Born in Montecchio Emilia, Bulega started his career aged 8 in the Italian Minimoto Championship. In 2010 he made his debut in MiniGP 50, in both the Italian and European championships, winning both in 2011. In 2012 he won the Italian Championship 125 PreGP and the following year he won the Italian Championship Pre GP 250. As a result, he moved into the CEV Moto3 Championship for the 2014 season, he finished 6th overall in his rookie season with two podium finishes.

He also won the 2015 FIM CEV Moto3 Junior World Championship.

Moto3 World Championship

Sky Racing Team VR46 (2015–2018)

2015

In 2015, Bulega made his Grand Prix debut with Sky Racing Team VR46 riding a KTM in the Valencian Grand Prix, and finished the race in twelfth place, scoring four points.

2016

In 2016, Bulega started competing full-time in the Moto3 World Championship with Sky Racing Team VR46. He started the 2016 season with a sixth place at Qatar. At his fifth race in Moto3, Bulega achieved his first Grand Prix podium at Jerez with 2nd-place finish having started from pole position, which was his first pole position in Grand Prix racing. Bulega's first fastest lap came at the British Grand Prix in the last lap. Followed by a crash in Aragon, on his birthday Bulega finished the Japanese grand Prix at fourth place, and again set the fastest lap. However, after the third place holder Hiroki Ono was disqualified, Bulega was awarded third place. Both in Australia and Malaysia, Bulega crashed in the opening lap. Despite qualifying 4th, Bulega started the final race at Valencia in 16th place due to a 12 place grid penalty, and finished the race at 17th, thus losing the 'Rookie of the year' title to Joan Mir. Bulega finished the championship in 7th place with 129 points.

2017

In a year where former Rookie of the Year rival Joan Mir won the 2017 Moto3 World Championship, Bulega struggled to replicate his debut season. His difficulties included bad qualifying strategies and bad starts (mainly due to his height), and his best results of the year were a 4th place on Germany, one of the few times he was able to qualify on the top 6, and two 5th places, in his "home" race in Rimini, and in the USA. He finished the disappointing season in 12th place, with 81 points.

2018

Bulega's 2018 season was even worse than 2017. He retired in the first four races, and finished the fifth race, only 17th in Spain, being one of the two regular drivers to not score points in the first five races of the year. His only top 10 finish came in Thailand, where he finished 7th. He ended the season with mere 18 points, and 26th in the standings.

Moto2 World Championship

Sky Racing Team VR46 (2019)

2019

For the 2019 Moto2 World Championship, despite his poor results, and mainly due to his height and weight on smaller bikes, Bulega was given an opportunity in Moto2 by Sky Racing Team VR46, partnering Luca Marini. He performed somewhat better, with 4 top-10 finishes in the Spanish, French, Czech, and Thai Grand Prixs, but finished 17th in the standings with 48 points. Marini ended in 6th, with 190 points, and 4 podiums (two victories), and Sky VR46 decided not to keep Bulega for a second season.

Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 (2020–2021)

2020

In the 2020 Moto2 World Championship, Bulega was partnered by Edgar Pons at Gresini. Bulega once again had a bad year, only finishing in the top 10 twice, ending the season 20th in the standings, with 32 points. Luckily for him, Pons had an even worse season, finishing with points in just two races.

2021

For the 2021 season, Bulega's teammate was Fabio Di Giannantonio. Di Giannantonio finished on the podium three times, winning a race in Jerez, while Bulega only finished in a point scoring position three times throughout the season. His 12 points of the season were Bulega's lowest ever of a full season in his career, and due to his bad performance, Gresini elected not to keep him for the 2022 season.

Supersport World Championship

On September 22, 2021, it was announced that Bulega would join Aruba.it Racing for their first season of the 2022 Supersport World Championship. Finishing in fourth place in the standings at the end of his first season in this category.

On Saturday, 30 September 2023 he was crowned the 2023 World Champion with three races to spare after taking 14 wins and 18 podiums up to and including Race 1 at the Portuguese Round.
His future was secure after he was announced as Alvaro Bautista’s 2024 teammate at the factory Ducati squad in WorldSBK.

Career statistics

FIM CEV Moto3 Junior World Championship

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos	Pts
2014	KTM	JER1 16	JER2 7	LMS 13	ARA 7	CAT1 16	CAT2 10	ALB 6	NAV 3	ALG 2	VAL1 4	VAL2 7		6th	95
2015	KTM	ALG 3	LMS 6	CAT1 3	CAT2 4	ARA1 7	ARA2 5	ALB 2	NAV 2	JER1 2	JER2 1	VAL1 4	VAL2 3	1st	189

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

By season

Season	Class	Motorcycle	Team	Race	Win	Podium	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd
2015	Moto3	KTM	Sky Racing Team VR46	1	0	0	0	0	4	31st
2016	Moto3	KTM	Sky Racing Team VR46	18	0	2	1	2	129	7th
2017	Moto3	KTM	Sky Racing Team VR46	17	0	0	1	0	81	12th
2018	Moto3	KTM	Sky Racing Team VR46	14	0	0	0	0	18	26th
2019	Moto2	Kalex	Sky Racing Team VR46	18	0	0	0	0	48	17th
2020	Moto2	Kalex	Federal Oil Gresini Moto2	15	0	0	0	0	32	20th
2021	Moto2	Kalex	Federal Oil Gresini Moto2	16	0	0	0	0	12	26th
Total				99	0	2	2	2	324

By class

Class	Seasons	1st GP	1st Pod	1st Win	Race	Win	Podiums	Pole	FLap	Pts	WChmp
Moto3	2015–2018	2015 Valencia	2016 Spain		50	0	2	2	2	232	0
Moto2	2019–2021	2019 Qatar			49	0	0	0	0	92	0
Total	2015–2021				99	0	2	2	2	324	0

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Class	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Pos	Pts
2015	Moto3	KTM	QAT	AME	ARG	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GER	IND	CZE	GBR	RSM	ARA	JPN	AUS	MAL	VAL 12		31st	4
2016	Moto3	KTM	QAT 6	ARG 18	AME 10	SPA 2	FRA 5	ITA 8	CAT 5	NED 7	GER Ret	AUT 9	CZE 9	GBR 5	RSM 4	ARA Ret	JPN 3	AUS Ret	MAL Ret	VAL 17		7th	129
2017	Moto3	KTM	QAT 14	ARG 16	AME 5	SPA 7	FRA 17	ITA 10	CAT 9	NED 10	GER 4	CZE 23	AUT 11	GBR 20	RSM 5	ARA 14	JPN 12	AUS 11	MAL Ret	VAL DNS		12th	81
2018	Moto3	KTM	QAT Ret	ARG Ret	AME Ret	SPA 17	FRA Ret	ITA 21	CAT Ret	NED 11	GER 14	CZE 19	AUT 23	GBR C	RSM Ret	ARA 14	THA 7	JPN	AUS	MAL	VAL	26th	18
2019	Moto2	Kalex	QAT Ret	ARG Ret	AME	SPA 9	FRA 10	ITA Ret	CAT 13	NED Ret	GER 18	CZE 7	AUT 13	GBR 20	RSM Ret	ARA 12	THA 8	JPN Ret	AUS 12	MAL 12	VAL 22	17th	48
2020	Moto2	Kalex	QAT 18	SPA 14	ANC 12	CZE 14	AUT 16	STY 13	RSM 15	EMI 11	CAT Ret	FRA Ret	ARA 18	TER 17	EUR 8	VAL 9	POR Ret					20th	32
2021	Moto2	Kalex	QAT 22	DOH 17	POR Ret	SPA Ret	FRA 11	ITA DNS	CAT 17	GER 11	NED 19	STY 22	AUT 22	GBR 14	ARA Ret	RSM 17	AME DNS	EMI 18	ALR 22	VAL 24		26th	12

Supersport World Championship

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	Pos	Pts
2022	Ducati	SPA 5	SPA 3	NED 3	NED 4	POR 3	POR Ret	ITA 3	ITA 3	GBR Ret	GBR 3	CZE 9	CZE 2	FRA 11	FRA 3	SPA Ret	SPA 14	POR 15	POR 10	ARG 11	ARG 8	INA 6	INA 6	AUS 2	AUS 4	4th	242
2023	Ducati	AUS 1	AUS 1	INA 5	INA 3	NED 1	NED 1	SPA 1	SPA Ret	ITA 1	ITA 2	GBR 1	GBR 1	ITA 3	ITA 2	CZE 1	CZE 16	FRA 1	FRA 1	SPA 1	SPA 1	POR 1	POR 2	SPA 1	SPA 1	1st	503

Superbike World Championship

By season

Season	Motorcycle	Team	Race	Win	Podium	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd
2024	Ducati Panigale V4 R	Aruba.it Racing – Ducati	36	6	24	4	11	484	2nd
Total			36	6	24	4	11	484

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Bike	1			2			3			4			5			6			7			8			9			10			11			12			Pos	Pts
		R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2
2024	Ducati	AUS 1	AUS 5	AUS 5	SPA 2	SPA 4	SPA 2	NED 11	NED 2	NED 8	EMI 2	EMI 2	EMI 2	GBR 4	GBR 2	GBR 2	CZE 6	CZE 2	CZE 2	POR 7	POR 5	POR 2	FRA Ret	FRA 1	FRA 1	ITA 2	ITA 4	ITA 3	SPA Ret	SPA 3	SPA 3	EST 2	EST 1	EST 2	SPA 1	SPA 1	SPA 2	2nd	484

* Season still in progress.

External links

• Official website
• Nicolò Bulega at MotoGP.com
• Nicolò Bulega at WorldSBK.com
• Nicolò Bulega at the CONI honored athlete website (in Italian)
• Nicolò Bulega at AS.com (in Spanish)