The opening round of the 2026 World Superbike championship largely went to script, with Phillip Island once again favouring the Ducati Panigale V4R and Nicolo Bulega being a class apart from the rest of the field.

His second treble victory in a row at the Aussie circuit reinforced the feeling that the only person likely to prevent the Italian from claiming the title this season will be himself, in the form of a crash resulting in him missing time due to injuries.

That unfortunate event is less likely to happen if his cushion over his rivals is as big as it appears. Bulega’s imperious display in the wet Race Two just goes to show the level that he is riding at. Expecting many mistakes from him is going to be expecting too much.

Tremendous start for Taz!

Tarran Mackenzie used all his British weather experience to take his MGM Optical Express Racing Ducati to a brilliant fourth-placed finish in Race Two.

Yes, a few things fell into place for him, but taking those opportunities when they present themselves is vital for independent team riders. There will be plenty of weekends where getting into the top 10 will be a strong result for Taz. Locking down a few top six finishes along the way – especially in such tricky conditions – are the difference between a decent season and an eye-catching one.

Encouragement for Bimota

Elsewhere, it was a very encouraging start to the season for Bimota with both Axel Bassani and Alex Lowes claiming podiums over the weekend.

They had a stronger return to the paddock last season than many expected and it feels like there’s plenty more to come in the development of the Bimota KB998 Rimini.

That’s great news for Axel and Alex, but also makes me even more excited to see what the bike can do in the British Superbike championship this season with the experienced FS-3 team and two young chargers in Max Cook and Joe Talbot.

The British team recently took delivery of their bikes and will be joining the World SBK team for testing in Portimao in March.

Better for BMW

I’d expect BMW to be quite content with their opening round, given the limited testing they had been able to complete with their two new riders.

It was such a shame that a quick-shifter issue scuppered Miguel Oliveira’s Superpole race. He rode brilliantly to get into the top nine, only to fall down the standings in the final two laps and therefore put him at the back of the grid again for Race Two following his qualifying crash.

Given the pace he showed in the final race, it would have been fascinating to see how he would have got on from a third row start.

A Downer for Dixon

Jake Dixon had the worst possible start to his World SBK career with a bad crash in testing that has put him out of action for the foreseeable future.

Unfortunately it sounds like a nasty injury, with his fractured left wrist being the type of issue that you really need to make sure has time to fully heal to prevent longer-term problems.

Although the five week gap between the first and second rounds is helpful, I would expect the Portuguese round to still come too early for him and even the mid-April round at Assen may be a stretch.

Given the struggles the Honda HRC team have had in recent seasons, a title push was never on the cards for Jake in 2026 and this was always going to be a learning year. However, even that learning process will be hampered given the lack of laps in pre-season testing and all the vital knowledge and data that Dixon and the team will miss out on from the first few rounds.

Tommy Stepping Up

We did get the surprising news that Tommy Bridewell and the Superbike Advocates Racing have decided to rip up their BSB entry and instead compete in World Superbikes this season from Round Two.

The team’s Australian owner, Lee Khouri, has both the money and the ambition to go wherever he wants and it was always the intention for the team to step up to World SBK in 2027. Initially that was going to mean Oli Bayliss leaving World Supersport to run in BSB this year, but his change of heart created a vacancy for Bridewell and that’s now worked out very nicely for the 2023 BSB champion.

[Side note: it was great to see Oli getting his maiden World Supersport podium on Saturday with dad Troy on hand to celebrate with him].

It’s a chance Tommy probably thought had passed him by at this stage in his career. Add on the frustration he felt about how he was unfairly judged on his wild card appearances for Honda last season and you know that Bridewell will be more determined than ever to show what he’s capable of on the world stage.