It was a string that had been missing from his bow until then. Present in WSBK and also in MotoGP, Ducati did not have any Endurance motorcycles. The current Panigale V4 R has opened up new perspectives, so much so that the Borgo Panigale factory will launch it in the marathon category of motorcycle sport. Sports director Paolo Ciabatti reveals the plan of attack. Which will lead the Italian firm to ultimately challenge the Japanese at home, on their sacred ground of the Suzuka 8 Hours…
Japanese factories are not done yet Ducati. In competition with a coat of arms of Borgo Panigale, although industrially smaller than them, in the speed disciplines of the motorcycle world, they will find it again from 2020 in Endurance which was until then their reserved domain. The Italians will rub shoulders with another European named BMW.
Precisely, initially, Ducati replace BMW in a team. Paolo ciabatti explains on GP One : " yes, in 2020 we will participate in the World Endurance Championship with the Panigale V4 R, but we will not do it in official form. It will be a private team that currently uses BMW in the category that will have our bike. But even if we are not directly involved, we will provide the necessary support to succeed in a championship which is developing a lot and which interests us ».
Ciabatta specifies that the adventure will indeed begin in 2020, in a championship where the season begins in… 2019, in September with the Bol D'Or. " We will only start this collaboration with the first stage of 2020, so with the 24 Hours of Le Mans in April. The team signed a contract with BMW that expires at the end of 2019 and will honor it. Then it will start working with our motorcycle ».
What type of support will be offered by Ducati to the team? “ Certain details present on our motorcycles in the SBK configuration are compatible and can be used in Endurance. So we will provide them. But the real support will come from another point of view, because there will also be one of our electronics engineers to follow the team. The Panigale V4 R has very sophisticated electronics and, as in the BSB with the PBM team which manages Brookes and Redding, it is up to a man of ours to work on it ».
Talking about Endurance inevitably means thinking about Suzuka and at the 8 Hours. An exciting challenge. “ Of course, but I am convinced that Suzuka is an almost completely different race from the rest of the World Endurance Championship »Insists Ciabatta. " A real event which, although part of the calendar, represents a very different challenge for those manufacturers who intend to participate and do so officially. It reminds me in a way of the Daytona 200 miles ».
« In my opinion, if we decide to officially participate in the Suzuka 8 Hours in an official way, it will be our own project, which will require a lot of effort. We need to plan tests on the track when these are possible, the best riders available in the Ducati family need to be fielded and then we need to think that, to win there, the Bridgestones need to be used for victory » ends a Ciabatta who already has his roadmap in mind to challenge competitors from the land of the rising sun.
