Franco Morbidelli to Swap MotoGP for WorldSBK in 2027, Trading Places With Champion Bulega

A seat swap between the series

Franco Morbidelli, a three-time MotoGP race winner, will leave the premier class at the end of the season to make his WorldSBK debut in 2027 with the factory Aruba.it Racing-Ducati team. The move effectively mirrors the opposite journey being made by 2026 WorldSBK champion Nicolo Bulega, who is stepping up to MotoGP with VR46 Racing.

Morbidelli made the announcement at Cremona, the same venue where Bulega had just been crowned WorldSBK champion, a fitting backdrop for a trade that reshapes both paddocks at once.

A fresh start after a tough year

Morbidelli was candid about the reasoning behind the move. "It's a great opportunity for me after a difficult year in MotoGP, where I've struggled on some occasions," he said. "I hope to be able to use the chance that Ducati are giving me well. We all know a package like Aruba Ducati is a package very much capable of winning, so I'm aiming to do that."

In WorldSBK, he will partner Iker Lecuona, who enjoyed a breakout 2026 season, and will race against established names like Miguel Oliveira as well as fellow 2027 newcomers Jack Miller and Brad Binder.

A return to familiar ground

The move is, in a sense, a homecoming. Morbidelli first raced in the WorldSBK paddock's STK600 class between 2011 and 2013, winning that title in 2013 before moving on through Moto2 and eventually into MotoGP. Thirteen or fourteen years later, he described the switch as a return "to my roots."

He acknowledged there will be an adjustment period adapting to WorldSBK's different format, which uses no Q1/Q2 qualifying system and runs three races per weekend instead of MotoGP's two, a structural shift that will test him just as much as the bikes themselves as he looks to replicate the kind of success that made him a race winner in the premier class.