Ducati Corse functions as Ducati's centralised competition arm, handling factory racing programmes across multiple categories including MotoGP, WorldSBK, Supersport, and national championships. The Superbike World Championship, which launched in 1988, adopted technical rules based on production-derived motorcycles — an environment well suited to Ducati's air-cooled and later liquid-cooled V-twin architecture. Ducati's early superbike machinery offered a power delivery and handling balance that proved particularly effective on the varied circuits of the inaugural WorldSBK calendar.
Ducati entered the Superbike World Championship from its inaugural 1988 season and built toward a sustained period of dominance through the early 1990s. Raymond Roche gave Ducati its first riders' title in 1990. The following year, 1991, the championship was claimed by Doug Polen, who rode for the customer team managed by Eraldo Ferracci rather than a full factory entry — a sign of how competitive Ducati's machinery was even in privateer hands.
From 1994 to 1999, British rider Carl Fogarty won four riders' championships on Ducati machinery, becoming the most celebrated figure of that era in the series and cementing the brand's association with World Superbike success. Australian Troy Corser won the 1996 title riding a factory-specification Ducati fielded by the Austrian Promotor Racing team.
Troy Bayliss continued the winning tradition by claiming the first of his three riders' championships in 2001. In the 2003 season, following rule changes in MotoGP that drew Japanese manufacturers away from the Superbike championship, Ducati Corse ran the only two factory-backed machines in the field — Ducati 999s — and took 20 wins from 24 races. Neil Hodgson won the title and the team amassed 600 points, a record constructor score for a single season. The following year, 2004, saw James Toseland take the riders' crown on a Ducati.
Bayliss returned to the Superbike World Championship in 2006 after three seasons in MotoGP, and the combination proved decisive: he and Ducati dominated the season with 12 race victories. In 2007 Bayliss raced the Ducati 999, which had already been replaced in production by the 1098, with Ducati building 150 limited-edition units purely to meet homologation requirements. For 2008 the team switched to a homologated version of the 1098R under revised FIM rules that raised the displacement limit for twin-cylinder engines to 1,200 cc. Bayliss won his third world championship that year and retired from racing at the end of the season.
The 2009 season saw Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio partner in the factory Ducati effort. Haga had a strong campaign but lost the championship by just six points, finishing second overall, with Fabrizio third. After Haga and Fabrizio were retained for 2010, Ducati announced in August of that year that the factory team would not continue in the Superbike World Championship in 2011, ending 23 consecutive seasons of factory or factory-supported involvement. At the point of withdrawal Ducati held 29 combined riders' and manufacturers' championship titles.
During the 2011 and 2012 seasons Ducati provided factory-level support to the privateer Althea Racing team. Carlos Checa took the 2011 riders' title riding the Althea Ducati. In 2013 support moved to Francis Batta's Alstare Racing team, which debuted the new Ducati 1199 Panigale R in the world championship. In November 2013, Ducati announced a return to full factory team status in the Superbike World Championship.
Ducati returned with an official factory team for the 2014 season, signing British rider Chaz Davies alongside Italian Davide Giugliano. Davies became the dominant Ducati force in the following seasons: he finished as championship runner-up in 2015, 2017, and 2018, and third in 2016. Marco Melandri, who replaced Giugliano, finished fourth in 2017 and fifth in 2018.
For 2019 Melandri was replaced by Spanish rider Álvaro Bautista, who launched the season with an extraordinary run of 11 consecutive race victories. Despite that dominant opening, his season became more inconsistent and he ultimately did not win the championship.
Ducati's record in the Superbike World Championship is unmatched in the history of the series. The manufacturer's combination of high-performance V-twin machinery with a succession of elite riders produced a competitive standard that defined the early decades of the championship. As of the end of 2015, Ducati had accumulated more championship wins than any other manufacturer in WorldSBK. The brand's continued involvement, through factory teams and technical support to satellite squads, has kept it central to the championship throughout its existence, and the Ducati name remains synonymous with the World Superbike series.