A new rider and a new livery have been revealed on a new bike for the Barni Ducati WorldSBK team.

Alvaro Bautista joins the Italian team for 2026 after four seasons spent in the Ducati factory team. The first two of those saw him crowned champion, then he was beaten handily in both 2024 and 2025 by Nicolo Bulega, who replaced Bautista as Ducati’s WorldSBK focus.

Bautista’s move to Barni comes in synchronisation with two other changes: the paint and the bike.

The paint is as obvious as some of the changes on the bike, the Panigale V4 R coming with a new aerodynamics package and a new double-sided swingarm in 2026. In Barni’s case, the new year also brings much more red to the garage, brightening the scene after several years of largely black paint jobs.

The team launch is Barni’s first step into the 2026 season, having not yet started testing. Only the factory squad, of the Ducati teams in the championship, tested post-season in 2025. The satellite teams, including Barni, will have to wait until 21–22 January for their first tests of the new season, those taking place at Jerez, which has already hosted 2026 tests in October and November last year.

This will not be the first contact with the new Ducati for either Bautista or his 2026 teammate, Yari Montella, though, both having tested the bike last summer.

While Bautista’s 2026 is about trying to rediscover former glories after a baron spell which includes a win drought extending to the 2024 Dutch Round, Montella makes his second full campaign in the premier class of production racing this year after a crash-strewn 2025. 

12 DNFs were tallied by the Italian last year in 33 races, but between the crashes there were occasional flashes of speed. Keeping himself upright to take advantage of that speed will be the key to Montella’s 2026 campaign.