The Ducati Panigale V4R was curbed in the 2019 season: the World Superbike technical director explains why Ducati didn’t get the revs back
The then brand new V4 superbike made an extremely potent combination when paired with Superbike rookie Alvaro Bautista.
Series World Champion Jonathan Rea had no chance with his Kawasaki. After three races, the WSBK officials decided to downgrade the Ducati Panogale V4R by 250 rpm. As the season progressed, the strong performances of the first races could not be repeated. Kawasaki celebrated their fifth world championship title in a row thanks to Rea.
The fact that Ducati still has to ride at the reduced revs of 16,100 rpm is causing frustration in the Italian camp (which bothers Ducati).
Ducati technical director Marco Zambenedetti cannot understand why Ducati are not allowed to race at the original revs again, as all rivals are now using new bikes, some with new rev limits. The balance established in the 2019 season no longer exists, according to Ducati.
Why Ducati can’t get the 250rpm back
We confronted WSBK technical director Scott Smart about this issue. Smart defends the decision not to give Ducati back the 250rpm: “There is software from Dorna that is constantly analysing the performance of the bikes. In this analysis it is clear that in the case of Ducati there is no evidence of underperformance. “
“If the Ducati’s performance were to drop significantly below that of the Kawasaki and Yamaha, then they would get the 250rpm back,” Scott Smart explained in an exclusive interview.
Kawasaki and Yamaha are also affected
The rev limit in the World Superbike Championship is always hotly debated. Most recently, critical voices were heard from Kawasaki, because the 2021 version of the ZX-10RR had to run at the same revs as the previous model.
Scott Smart remembers the past two years: “The Yamaha received a facelift in 2020. But the engine and the chassis remained the same. The fairing was changed, there were also some small detail changes. The revs were retained because we argued that the changes were not extensive enough. “
“That was also the case with Kawasaki at the beginning of the 2021 season. They were of the opinion that the engine would be classified as new. But the reality was that only one component was changed. So we did not classify the engine as new. So they had to continue with the previous revs,” said the technical director, explaining the decision.