Claudio Domenicali, Ducati CEO, has just gone straight up to the top of our attentions with just one Tweet! Using his official Twitter account, Domenicali wrote a few words about the last Misano GP and how happy he is with the improvements made on the Desmosedici GP18 prototype, but he also wrote something very important about Ducati’s new road going bikes.
According to Domenicali, Ducati has made a lot of improvements in the development of the bike’s chassis (frame stiffness, swing arm construction) and also how they’ve been developing traction control derived from the MotoGP project.
But what’s really interesting is that he also confirms that Ducati can’t wait to introduce aerodynamic package on the production Panigale V4’s!
That can only mean that the upcoming special homologation Panigale V4R will get winglets like the ones we now see on the MotoGP prototype. This V4R has been under development since the Panigale V4 was shown, but with an engine displacement under 1000 cc to be able to race in World Superbike, the Panigale V4R promises to be a truly exceptional work of engineering.
We expect that Ducati shows the Panigale V4R during the EICMA Milan motorcycle show, in November. And there’s also the chance that Ducati introduces this special aerodynamic package to the rest of the Panigale V4 family.
This will be very interesting to see, because Aprilia has already a special limited version of the RSV4 RF, called the Factory Works, that not only gives the Noale V4 engine more power (215 hp), but also uses MotoGP style winglets.
The World Superbike regulations allow the use of winglets on the race bikes, as long as the production version has them. So, with Aprilia and most probably Ducati using these winglets on their homologation bikes for WSBK, will we see race bikes for this championship using them?