Ducati to make 2025 Alvaro Bautista decision by end of August

Ducati has revealed that it intends to make a decision over its 2025 WorldSBK line-up by the end of August.

The Italian manufacturer — whose factory riders Nicolo Bulega and Alvaro Bautista currently sit second and third, respectively, in the riders’ standings behind BMW’s dominant Toprak Razgatlioglu — has confirmed its commitment to an end-of-August deadline at this weekend’s WorldSBK Portuguese Round.

In Portugal, Aruba.it Racing Ducati Team Manager, Serafino Foti, told WorldSBK.com that “before the end of August we [Ducati] will finalise everything.”

Despite reigning champion Alvaro Bautista having struggled for form in 2024 relative to his title-winning 2022 and 2023 seasons, the Spaniard is currently expected to remain with the Italian factory next season.

“Our goal is to try and keep [Bautista] also for next year,” Foti said, adding that “Alvaro is our priority, and we will try to do our best to continue with him.

“Alvaro this morning was not so bad and now we will try to find the best setup for him to put the weight in the right way.”

Bautista himself made positive conclusions after Friday. "Physically, I feel okay,” Bautista said at the end of the day. About his crash: “I have a bit of road rash but it's no problem.”

Bautista explained that the cause of the crash — which happened at the highest point of the Portimao circuit, at turns 10 and 11 — was the wind.

“The wind was the issue for the crash because it started to get stronger after the middle of FP2,” the reigning champion said. “In that corner the wind pushed me a lot. I had arrived at the corner a little faster than the lap before and I tried to brake at the same point but I lost the front.”

Despite the crash, Bautista found reason for positivity. “In general, I'm quite happy because, already this morning, I felt very similar to how I did in Most with the bike,” he said. “That means it's similar to last year as well. The memories I have from the winter test here weren't good but today has been much better. We also tried some different gearing to deal with the wind. 

Bautista added that part of his positive feeling with the bike is simply that it has remained consistent from the previous race in the Czech Republic. “This is the first weekend where we've left one track and come to a new one where the feeling has stayed the same. It's been a positive day. We had a good weekend at Most, even if the result wasn't great, and we've started well here. We need to keep building our confidence with the bike and aim for our best performance tomorrow."