With Toprak Razgatlioglu’s departure to MotoGP, Nicolò Bulega was considered the main favourite for clinching the Superbike title. Thanks to his first two seasons in the category, marked by 20 victories, he managed to become vice world champion both in 2024 and 2025.
The records already set
Few, however, could have imagined such an explosive start to 2026, during which Bulega has already broken several historical records: in 2019, Alvaro Bautista won the first 11 races of the season, while this year Bulega has claimed victory in the first 15 rounds, achieving a triple win in Australia, Portugal, the Netherlands, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.
This streak, combined with his triumph in the last 4 races of 2025, allowed him to shatter Toprak Razgatlioglu's record, who on two separate occasions had strung together 13 consecutive wins in the Superbike World Championship. Bulega has now reached 19 consecutive victories and shows no signs of stopping.
Not content with that, Bulega has also surpassed the record for consecutive podium finishes in the Superbike World Championship: thanks to the 13 at the end of the 2025 season and the 15 at the start of this year, the Ducati rider has reached 28, overtaking the 25 achieved in 2002 by Colin Edwards and in 2025 by Toprak Razgatlioglu.
If he continues at this pace, even allowing for a partial slowdown on some occasions, Bulega could break a whole series of seasonal records in the Superbike World Championship, taking them away from three riders who have made history in production-based racing.
Bulega's brakes
In this season, on his Ducati Panigale V4 R, Nicolò Bulega uses Brembo steel discs with a diameter of 338.5 mm and a thickness of 6.5 mm. The Ducati rider prefers slotted discs over traditional ones because they enhance the cooling of the system, thus avoiding dangerous performance drops at the end of the race.
The discs are operated by Brembo monobloc aluminum calipers with four pistons, each with a diameter of 34 mm. The calipers also feature cooling fins on the outer body, which increase the surface area of the pistons exposed to air by 30 percent compared to calipers without fins.
Additionally, Brembo calipers are equipped with an amplification system that generates additional force beyond the hydraulic pressure of the brake fluid on the pistons. With the same force applied by the rider, the braking is therefore greater compared to those using non-amplified calipers.
Furthermore, Brembo calipers feature an anti-drag system that, through a spring device, significantly reduces the phenomenon of residual torque. In other words, it prevents the brake pads from coming into contact with the disc when there is no pressure in the system, avoiding unwanted slowdowns.
For the interior of the calipers, Bulega always chooses High Mass brake pads, which, as the name suggests, have a greater mass than standard pads. These pads have a length of 90 mm and a weight of 155 grams, infinitesimal values that help reduce unsprung masses.
Completing Bulega's braking system is the Brembo index pump, which he uses to control the rear brake, both during braking and acceleration, through a control located on the handlebar, and the HTC 64 brake fluid, which offers the lowest compressibility available while providing a high boiling temperature.
The records in sight
After thoroughly analyzing all the brakes that Bulega uses in 2026 in the Superbike World Championship, which are decidedly different from those he uses as a Ducati tester for MotoGP, let’s see what seasonal records he can aim for and where he currently stands:
1 - Wins in a season: record holder Alvaro Bautista
For the second year in a row, Bulega has surpassed 10 seasonal victories, a feat achieved only by Jonathan Rea, Alvaro Bautista, and Toprak Razgatlioglu. So far, only two riders have reached 20 wins in a championship: Toprak Razgatlioglu won 21 races in 2025, but the record belongs to Alvaro Bautista with 27 wins in 2023 with the Ducati Panigale V4R equipped with Brembo braking system. Nicolò Bulega is already at 15 and still has 21 races available, barring any cancellations.
2 - Podiums in a season: record holder Jonathan Rea
To win the World Championship, since the Superpole Race was introduced in 2019, increasing the number of races by 50 percent, it is necessary to achieve at least 25 podiums. However, there are cases like Bulega himself in 2025, who collected 32 podiums without winning the title. In 2023, Toprak Razgatlioglu stood on the podium 33 times, but in 2019 Jonathan Rea managed it in 34 races. Bulega’s journey is still long despite already having 15 podiums, as to break the record, he can afford only one absence in the last 24 races.
3 - Poles in a season: record holder Ben Spies
This year, Bulega has claimed all the poles awarded in the first 5 rounds, matching what Jonathan Rea achieved in 2021. Only 2 riders have secured at least 10 poles in a Superbike World Championship season, both Americans: in 1991, Doug Polen started in pole position in 10 of the 13 rounds, but in 2009, Ben Spies managed it 11 times, thanks to the 14 rounds. Bulega, on the other hand, faces the challenge of 12 rounds in this championship and therefore cannot afford to fail more than once.
4 - Points in a season: record holder Jonathan Rea
Thanks to the 62 points obtained at Phillip Island, Portimao, Assen, Balaton Park, and Most, in 2026 Bulega already has 310 points, 95 more than the closest competitor. The first to surpass 500 points were Colin Edwards and Troy Bayliss in 2002, followed by Carlos Checa in 2011. Jonathan Rea, with the Kawasaki equipped with Brembo brakes, was the first to exceed 600 points in 2019: he achieved 663 points that year, an unmatched record. If Bulega continues to score maximum points, he could reach 744 points, but even 700 seems like science fiction.
5 - Fastest laps in a race in a season: record holder Alvaro Bautista
Currently, the first seasonal record that Bulega could break is the one for fastest laps in a race, having already achieved 13. The only ones he missed were in Race 2 in Portugal and Race 1 at Most, claimed by his teammate Iker Lecuona. In the history of the Superbike World Championship, only two riders have surpassed 16 fastest laps in a season: in 2023, Alvaro Bautista reached 23, while last year Toprak Razgatlioglu achieved 20. Bulega is therefore halfway there.
6 - Laps led in a season: record holder Alvaro Bautista
Winning races is one thing, but staying ahead from the start to the checkered flag is another: it requires an excellent qualifying performance, a flawless start, and the speed to quickly pull away. Unsurprisingly, there are only two instances of riders leading more than 300 laps in a season: Toprak Razgatlioglu led 323 laps in 2024, and Alvaro Bautista led 347 laps in 2023. Bulega is not far behind, having left only a handful of laps led to his rivals in the first 5 rounds: 244 for him, the remaining 15 for his competitors.
To find out if Nicolò Bulega will rewrite the Superbike World Championship’s roll of honour, we just have to enjoy the rest of the season. Although the impression is that the only thing that might stop him this year are Brembo brakes.