We always like to compare how fast any bike is versus a MotoGP. Sometimes we have seen the differences between a Stock bike, a Superbike and a MotoGP. This time it is the pure and concrete performance of a Superbike and a MotoGP in racing conditions and on the same track: Balaton Park.
Last weekend the WorldSBK passed through the Hungarian track, and Bulega brought out the steamroller once again. And be careful, when we say take out the steamroller it is almost literal and it has been doing it all year. As our colleague Max Temporali from Sky reports, so far this campaign Bulega is shattering all the records from the previous year.
It’s not that Nicolo is winning because Toprak is not there, it’s that he is being incredibly fast with the Panigale V4R on each and every one of the tracks they have passed through. So much so that in all of them the times have been improved compared to 2025. In the pole lap the minimum improvement is 263 thousandths in Balaton, and the greatest is 586 thousandths in Portimao. To this we must add that with the exception of Phillip Island with its conditions, the rest of the races have been 7, 10 and 17 seconds faster than last year.
This already makes Bulega’s speed clear. But if you compare Nicolo’s times with those of Marc Márquez in Balaton, it is even more impressive. And on a more stop-start track, it seems that the MotoGP doesn’t have that much of an advantage. What’s more, in the race, Marc’s pace was at a medium 38, with a fast lap of 1.37.699 and Bulega’s pace was at a high 38, with a fast lap of 1.38.569 and three final laps in which he lowered his pace.
This means that Bulega, in the fastest race lap, was less than nine tenths of a second behind Marc Márquez’s Desmosedici, and that the difference in pace was even fairer. The potential of Bulega and the Panigale V4R is evident, but what happens in the last section, T4, still draws more attention. There, systematically, lap after lap, Bulega is faster than Marc.
It must be said that this last sector starts after turn 14, so there is a more or less important straight, and then it has turns 15 to 17 in which we find a chicane and the entrance to the finish line. A fast section at the beginning but slow at the end, with a relatively fast but not excessively fast last corner, where the agility of a Superbike counts more than the cornering that the MotoGP may have.
Is SBK faster than MotoGP on any other circuit?
And if you’re wondering if this happens only in Balaton, the answer is no. After seeing the Temporali data, we decided to take the time sheets from other races and compared Marc’s 2025 times on the only possible track (Assen) since he did not race in Portimao or Phillip Island. And, curiously, there is also a sector in which Bulega is consistently faster than Marc over the race, T3.
In this case it also coincides with the area of medium speed curves that go from the stop at turn eight to just before turn 12. Is there a pattern or is it just a coincidence? Well, we will have to see throughout the season, but what is evident is that Superbikes are not only fast but depending on the time and place they are faster than a MotoGP. Not in one lap, not in total race distance, but in specific partials. And that, although it may seem little, says a lot about the work that is done on the production-derived motorcycles and about a Bulega that is capable of passing the race at a pace of less than nine tenths of a difference per lap.
That leaves us to fantasize once again about the MotoGP vs Superbike duel and would some small adjustments such as carbon brakes in the SBK be enough to achieve more equality? What is certain is that it would be interesting to see…
