Nicolo Bulega completely took an axe to the WorldSBK record books during the 2026 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship season. Bulega hauled in an astonishing 726 out of the maximum possible 744 points, stood on the podium in every single one of the 36 races to eclipse Jonathan Rea's previous 2019 record of 34, and claimed a record 32 wins in a single year. That stunning run brought his career total to 52 WorldSBK wins, putting him level with Troy Bayliss in fifth all-time. Across the box, the #7 rider was the only person to actually beat Bulega in a race all year, missing the podium only at his maiden round in factory Ducati red at Phillip Island and when he crashed out from P1 at Donington Park. The #7 locked down 27 second-place finishes, breaking Toprak Razgatlioglu's 2023 record for most second-place medals in a single season.
Behind the untouchable factory Ducatis, the fight for third in the standings went completely down to the wire. Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) put together an incredible sophomore campaign after finishing 18th in his rookie 2025 season with the same team, cleaning up his errors and taking a maiden P2 podium in the season-opener alongside 13 more rostrum appearances. Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) and Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) were inseparable in the order, with the independent Ducati rider finishing just nine points ahead of his Bimota-riding brother. Sam grabbed 12 rostrum results, while Alex relied on sheer consistency aboard his Provec Racing Team machine to arrive at the final round in P4. Ultimately, a heroic last-round podium triple from Sam shuffled his brother down to fifth place in the final standings.
Other riders made major waves in their sophomore years and new colors. Lorenzo Baldassarri (Team GoEleven) returned to the paddock after an 18th-place rookie finish in 2023 to claim two podiums through an aggressive riding style in 2026. Axel Bassani (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) improved from tenth in 2025 to seventh overall, spearheading a massive sophomore effort for the manufacturer that secured P2 in the Manufacturer’s title with both riders in the top seven. Garrett Gerloff (Kawasaki WorldSBK Team) similarly climbed from 15th to tenth in the standings. Meanwhile, rookies Alberto Surra (Motocorsa Racing) and Miguel Oliveira (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) both collected four podiums apiece. Surra scored a career-first podium triple at Estoril, while Oliveira's strong early trajectory—highlighted by home podiums at Portimao—was severely derailed by a Sunday morning Superpole Race crash at Balaton Park that kept him out of the top five until Estoril.
It was a much tougher road for others up and down the grid. Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha) came in hot off a fourth-place finish in 2025, but his closest brush with silverware in 2026 was a fifth place in the rain at Phillip Island. Teammate Xavi Vierge finished eleventh in his first year in Yamaha blue, matching his season-best P6 at Portimao and Assen. GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK teammate Remy Gardner saw his position drop from eleventh last season to 16th, though strong performances from the Yamaha riders at rounds like Assen and Misano left them just a single point behind BMW in the Manufacturer’s Championship.
Alvaro Bautista endured a difficult first campaign with the Barni Ducati outfit, taking a P3 in Australia as his sole piece of silverware alongside a pair of fourth-place finishes in the final two rounds and a missed round at Most due to injury. Danilo Petrucci suffered the exact same rotten luck on his first season on a factory bike, crashing at Most and breaking his coccyx. That injury ruled him out of Aragon and Misano, robbed him of his previous speed, and led to an emotional adieu to the paddock in the rain at Jerez.
Honda HRC faced an uphill battle after bringing in MotoGP newcomers Somkiat Chantra and Jake Dixon. Preseason injuries forced Chantra to miss Australia and the Netherlands, while Dixon missed nearly half the year with a persistent wrist injury from a preseason test in Australia. Both riders showed real progress by the end of the year, however, as Chantra matched his season-high P13 four times across Cremona and Estoril, while Dixon took sub-top ten finishes in every race at Cremona, capped by a personal-best WorldSBK result of P6 in Race 2.
