As expected, Ducati will lose some of the advantages they have over their rivals in the World Superbike championship. The FIM announced that starting this weekend round at Assen, the Ducati Panigale V4 R will be hit with a lower rev limit which will take the Italian superbike to a maximum of 16.100 rpm.
The amazing results that Alvaro Bautista achieved, nine wins out of nine races, were already a good indication that the FIM would hit Ducati with a lower rev limit, according to the new technical rules created last season. With the World Superbike round in Motorland Aragón, other Ducati riders like Chaz Davies and Eugene Laverty also showed great pace, and it was almost impossible to escape this lower rev limit.
So, the Ducati bikes lost 250 rpm’s compared to the original limit set at the beginning of the season and will be limited to 16.100 rpm, still the engine allowed to do the most revs in the World Superbike championship.
On the other side of the table, Honda will get the massive benefit, since the FIM announced they will unlock an extra 500 rpm’s for the CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2, bringing the Japanese bike to a maximum of 15.050 rpm.
No other manufacturer saw their engine rev limits changed for now, so Kawasaki, Yamaha, and BMW Motorrad won’t face the same problem as Ducati will.
The World Superbike organizers also confirmed that these changes in technical rules, that can happen again after the next three races in order to balance the competition on track, take in consideration the Race 1 and Race 2 results, what we call the full race distance events and not the new Superpole race with a short distance.
Will this change in rev limits mean Ducati and Alvaro Bautista will finally face a tougher challenge?