Nicolò Bulega Set For MotoGP Debut With Ducati

Nicolò Bulega replaces Marc Márquez for the final two rounds of 2025, making his MotoGP debut with the Ducati Lenovo Team at Portimão and Valencia.

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Nicolò Bulega is officially stepping onto the MotoGP grid.

The 23-year-old Italian will race the final two rounds of the 2025 season with the Ducati Lenovo Team, replacing Marc Márquez at Portimão and Valencia, and in doing so, will take his Desmosedici GP debut from test-rider status to full Grand Prix reality.

This isn’t a PR stunt nor a ceremonial wildcard. Ducati has been grooming Bulega from within. He joined the factory structure in 2022, adapted brilliantly to Ducati’s production-based Panigale, won the 2023 Supersport World Championship, and then immediately proved he could fight at the sharp end in Superbike, finishing runner-up in both 2024 and 2025.

Yesterday, he finally put laps on the Desmosedici GP at Jerez. Next week, that same machine becomes his race bike on one of MotoGP’s most technical circuits.

It will also mark his 100th World Championship start, a neat coincidence attached to a massive moment: MotoGP debuts don’t come often, and very rarely do they come in full factory red.

Inside Ducati Corse, this is also a strategic preview. Bulega has already been confirmed as a key development rider for the future, working alongside Michele Pirro as Ducati transitions into the new era of MotoGP tyres. Giving him real race kilometres now is not only a reward, but an investment.

For a rider who left the MotoGP paddock in 2021 to rebuild himself in Supersport, this is one of those full-circle chapters that motorsport sometimes delivers. From CEV to Moto3, to Moto2. Out. Then back in. And now straight to the top class.

Bulega has said he’s going into these two races with no expectations, just the intention to learn, absorb, and do his job.

But make no mistake: this is a huge moment for him, and a fascinating move by Ducati.

Two races. A factory Ducati. A MotoGP debut at last.

And now everyone gets to see how Nicolò Bulega looks under the lights of the premier class.