Alvaro Bautista makes first appearance in new WorldSBK colours

Alvaro Bautista has been unveiled for the first time in his new Barni Ducati colours for the 2026 WorldSBK season.

The Spanish rider joins the satellite Barni team after four seasons with the factory Ducati team in which he was WorldSBK Champion twice, but also beaten by his teammate Nicolo Bulega in each of the past two seasons.

Yari Montella will be Bautista’s teammate in 2026, the Italian aiming to utilise the strong speed he showed at times in 2025 but reducing the number of mistakes he makes – Montella registered 12 DNFs in 2025 from 33 races.

The Barni team of course also welcomes a new bike into its garage for 2026, with the updated Panigale V4 R – complete with engine updates, new aerodynamics, and a double-sided swingarm – making its debut this year.

It comes along with an updated livery from Barni, with a much brighter design this year after several iterations of the predominantly black scheme that became familiar. The colours are the same this year, just the balance is shifted in the direction of the red, which dominates the fairing and should make the bike stand out more on-track.

As far as the team’s performance prospects are concerned in 2026, it’s hard to judge at this stage considering the freshness of the technical package, the combination of youth and experience in the rider line-up, and perhaps most significantly the fact that it has not taken part in any preseason testing yet; like all the satellite Ducati teams, Barni will only begin its 2026 preseason on 21–22 January in Jerez, while almost everyone else tested post-season in 2025.

That said, Bautista can be counted among the riders most capable of challenging the aforementioned Bulega for this year’s title, although it will depend on him rediscovering some of the speed and consistency that was lost in 2024 when the combined rider-bike minimum weight was introduced in WorldSBK. Perhaps the new bike will help in that regard, but only time will tell.