Michael Dunlop looks set to attempt to add to his Isle of Man TT records at this year's event after announcing that he will compete on Ducati machinery in the superbike class.
It comes one year on from Dunlop taking the first victories in 30 years for the Italian marque in the two supersport races in 2025.
The 2026 move, something that has been widely anticipated for some time given both Dunlop's success on the V2 Panigale bike last year and a renewed focus on the TT from Ducati as a result of steadily improving success at the race in recent years, was seemingly confirmed by the notoriously media-shy Dunlop in a post on his social media channels.
"Our little V2 was getting lonely, so we went and got her a best mate, the V4 RS!" Dunlop said.
"Huge thanks to everyone at Ducati Corse, Ducati UK, and all our sponsors for helping make this project happen (even if it's come together a bit late!)
"Now it's back to the workshop, then off with the Hawk [Racing] team next week for testing to see how we get on."
This year is an important one for Ducati as it celebrates the company's 100th anniversary, and this marks a substantial leap of faith for Dunlop, considering Ducati has been notably absent from the TT winners' ranks even as its established itself as the dominant force in superbike racing elsewhere.
The last time a Ducati was victorious at the TT prior to Dunlop's double success in 2025 was Robert Holden in the 1995 Singles TT race on the ultra-exotic Supermono machine. Ducati's only other success came with Mike Hailwood's stunning return to the race in 1978 on a Ducati 900SS, one of the most storied wins in the race's long history.
A Ducati superbike switch for 2026 will give Dunlop the chance to add to his impressive TT record as well. Already the most successful rider of all time with 33 wins and 51 podiums, he has perhaps even more impressively achieved those victories on seven different bikes, last year adding Ducati to Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, BMW, Suzuki, and Paton.
However, while Dunlop might have announced his plans to ride the Ducati for now he does have a proclivity for switching brands at the last minute to find everything he needs to win at the TT.
He famously walked away from factory Yamaha machinery in 2015 to return to BMW days before the event after reliability problems during testing, while last year he looked set to run factory-backed Hondas, only to again switch to BMW.
He has twice signalled intent to run Ducati machinery in the superbike class, too, first in 2020 with Paul Bird Motorsport, when the COVID pandemic halted that plan, and again in 2022, only to return once again to Hawk Racing weeks before the event.
Even last year's success on the supersport-spec V2 Panigale came late, with Dunlop arriving on the Isle of Man with his loyal Yamaha R6 bike as a back-up should his experiment fail to work out in practice week - a situation that Ducati will be hoping to avoid in 2026.
from The Race https://ift.tt/jEfVgJH
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