Performance Bikes — March 2018

MARCH 2018|PERFORMANCEBIKES.CO.UK 33

DUCATI PANIGALE V4

The V4 WSB

racer got its first

public outing at

Jerez last month

Lorenzo Zanetti

puts the V4 R

through its paces

GiovanniCrupihasbeeninvolvedinDucatiCorse’sPanigaleracerfromthestart,

andhasbeenShakey’screwchiefforhistwoBSBchampionshipwinsonthe

Pani.Nowhe’sgettingtheV4uptospeed.HegavePBtherundownonwhythe

twinisWSB’snearly-man,andhowtheV4willmakethefinaljump

WHY THE V4 WILL

MAKEABETTERRACER

PROBLEM 1:Ty r e l i fe

Ducatitwinsarefamedforgripandtyrelifeenabledbythe

lopingdelivery,butachangeincontroltyreconstruction

hinderedthePanigaleinitsearlyyears...

“Weracedthe1098from2008-12,andinthateraPirelli

alwaysbroughttheSC1rangetyretotheraces.They

couldalsoimprovetheSC0compoundtogivenotonly

performancebutalsodurability.The1098didn’thavethat

muchhorsepower,itwas15/20bhpdownonthebest

competitors, like Aprilia, and that meant we had no problem

withtyredurability.

“The four cylinders could only use the tyres for a couple

of laps before a big drop in performance, but then Pirelli

improvedthetyresalotandthefourcylinderscoulduseall

thepowertheyhaveandmakethetyrelast.

“InthefirstfewyearsofthePanigale,thiswastheproblem

aswehadafewhorsepowerlessthanthecompetitors.”

PROBLEM 2:The Kawasaki

Once they’d gained power parity, Kawasaki’s huge, MotoGP-

levelspendingandresourcesontheirWSBeffort(aswellas

twoofthebestriders)proveddifficulttocatch...

“Astheyearswenton,thePanigalebecamealotmore

powerful, but the level of competition became very high,

especially with Kawasaki and Rea, and that’s why it hasn’t

won–eventhoughitisnowbetter.

“The Panigale’s chassis was never a problem. If you

remember, Carlos Checa took pole position for the

Panigale’sfirsteverraceinPhillipIslandwithareallygood

time.Handlinghasneverbeenabigissue,buttheproblem

was the power delivery.”

PROBLEM 3:Finding the last fractions of a second

“Now it is handling very well, even better, as well as making

more power. There are some tracks in the UK, narrow,

twistyoneswheremaybethebikedoesn’thandlesowellas

the chassis is very stiff and precise. Tracks that are bumpy

or twisty mean sometimes there is a disadvantage.

“I wouldn’t say the bike is difficult to set up. What you

wanttodoonthebikeandwhatyouexpectittodoispretty

muchthesame;itdoesn’treactinastrangewaylikesome

bikes.Whatisdifficultisfindingthewindowatthetop

level. It is very narrow depending on what lap time you

wanttoachieve...Wearesooftenlookingforthelasthalfa

tenth it takes to be competitive on the track, and sometimes

this is difficult to find.”

WhattheV4willbringtoWSBandBSB

“The1100ccV4hasalotofpower,sothatwillbeabig

improvement,andthepowerisnotsobadonthe1000cc

V4Rwearedevelopingeither,butIcan’tsayanything

about that to you just now!

“The V4 will give more power and torque and hopefully

wecanretainourtyreconservationwiththeextraengine

performance.It’ssomethingweareworkingonwiththe

race bike at the moment.

“Ingeneral,IthinktheV4willbeabetterbikeallround.

NotonlyistheremorepowerbutIthinkthehandlingwill

alsobebetter,alotmoreagile.ThePanigalehasalways

been very precise, but it always struggled on shorter

circuits.However,IbelievethechassisontheV4willbring

moreagilityforthesekindoftracks,andthatshouldmake

finding the window for those race and championship-

winninghundredthsofasecondeasier.”

DOUBLE RED

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