This weekend, during the 5th round of the World Superbike championship on the Misano Adriatico circuit, the power of the Ducati armada once again reduced the opposing brands' hopes of victory. Indeed, whether in World Supersport with Nicholas Bulega or in World Superbike with Alvaro Bautista, only crumbs were left for their opponents. Or rather, thanks to the extraordinary combativeness of some, the triumph was not total but narrow.
En World Supersport first of all, the first race of extreme monotony was won by the Ducati official.
In the second held on Sunday, it took all the combativeness and will of Stefano manzi on the Yamaha of the Ten Kate team to narrowly win in the final seconds. His brilliance has certainly spoken but only the specificity of this tortuous route will have allowed him such a feat. Indeed, the Yamaha turns very short and Manzi recovered his delay in the straights by braking like a trapper, always at the limit but it finally succeeded for him.
That being said, we should unfortunately not see potential competition for the overwhelming domination of the Bologna brand, rather an isolated feat.
In World Superbike, Alvaro Bautista always so talented and leading his horse like no one, left it to no one to win the 3 events of the weekend.
Alone, and it's a habit now, Toprak Razgatlioğlu will once again have shown all his driving genius to limit the damage: 3rd in the Saturday race, 2nd in the Sunday morning sprint and 2nd in Race 2, he unfortunately remains far too far from the Italian machine.
If it is indeed interesting to see the emergence of talents, or in the case of the Turk to confirm that he is – apart from the Catalan leader – the boss of the WSBK category, it is on the other hand worrying to note the excesses of the discipline. Above all, it is not a question of blaming the Italian brand, quite the contrary: The excellence with which it has been able to adapt and dominate the categories, including in MotoGP, is technically a great art and highlights the prodigious ingenuity and efficiency of Italian engineers in the design of their motorcycles.
The problem relates more to the threat of a single-make cup instead of the current championship. How can we not consider the possible withdrawal of competition which today is limited to making up the numbers? Because finally, apart from selling machines to private teams and therefore exempt from specific development, no manufacturer now succeeds in fighting or worrying Ducati. This is all the more regrettable since the new regulations introduced by the FIM were precisely supposed to offer more competition. Yes but he doesn't adapt quickly enough!
How can we compete with machines from the series that don't fight in the same category? A 6cc Yamaha R600, although ultra competitive given its domination of previous years, cannot fight on equal terms with a 2cc Ducati Panigale V955, claiming for its production model 3hp at 155 rpm when the Yamaha has to whip up to 10750 rpm for a lower power of 14500 hp.
And let's not talk about the "safety" offered in recovery by the said displacement, allowing the Italians to extricate themselves with force at the exit of the corner when the Japanese are struggling and have to stay in the laps to hang on.
Certainly, a rule of balance must harmonize the plate by electronic castrations supposed – among other things – to reduce the advantages of displacement, for example by lowering the maximum revs. But some people already did not believe, when new regulations were announced in 2022 authorizing the introduction of machines with higher displacement, in the performance equivalences with different cylinder capacities. And it is clear that, in the first third of the 2023 championship, these fears and convictions are well-founded: The titles to be filled seem already acquired by the representatives of the Italian brand.
In WSS, Open up skated last year and is now taking full advantage of the maturity of the development of his mount. In WSBK, Baptist barring any misfortune, head straight towards its second consecutive title. And in a way, the incredible effectiveness of the Panigale tarnishes his personal achievement because it seems so easy.
The giant Honda, almost absent from the intermediate category, does not really fight in Superbike, Kawasaki and its seven-time world champion Jonathan Rhea slowly collapsed, BMW still couldn't do it when Yamaha, the only machine still well balanced, lost its Turkish spearhead at the end of the season.
Already at the end of 2022, there was discontent within the paddock, accentuated by issues of driver fairness due to opposing sizes, with Bautista enjoying a “Jockey” size denounced as more favorable.
It appears urgent for the FIM, in addition to this reality, to work even more than it has already done on the fairness of technical performances, at the risk of definitively undermining a championship which already did not need of this to restore its image among an increasingly absent public. Visibly, the 250 rpm taken from Ducati before Barcelona are far from enough...
