Ducati is very famous for its innovations in MotoGP. The power of its V4 is a historic advantage and the Italian manufacturer was a forerunner in the development of aerodynamics and devices such as the holeshot device, which are essential today for achieving good results. Each of these developments has led to straight-line gains, a permanent objective for Gigi Dall’Igna.
“There are certainly many other things to consider, but I believe that speed is fundamental for a racing bike, whether it’s a Superbike or a MotoGP”the general manager of Ducati Corse told GPOne. “It’s clearly easier to overtake a driver on the straight than in a corner, and the reverse is also true; it’s annoying to be overtaken on the straight, the driver then has to take more risks to try to catch up. the position.”
“Finding the best possible compromise to have a fast straight-line bike is definitely important and it’s always been one of the things we’ve been looking for with Ducati.”
Dall’Igna perceives emulation in MotoGP, which pushes engineers to surpass themselves and introduce innovations: “Ideas always come when you confront others. It is difficult to have an idea alone. It is always a set of situations, events that serve to give birth to new ideas and they always arise from the fact of confronting others and a mixture of thoughts and situations.”
There is nothing innocent about the appearance of new technical solutions and Ducati’s competition department sees itself as the spearhead of the manufacturer, which in turn benefits from this development work to improve its production models. Dall’Igna sees the Panigale of commerce as a cousin of the Desmosedici of Pecco Bagnaia et Jack Miller.
“There’s a lot [de l’une sur l’autre]. The engine of the Panigale derives from the engine of the MotoGP. All the thermodynamic studies, on the pipes, the combustion chambers, etc., have been made on the basis of our MotoGP studies. So there is a lot of MotoGP on the Panigale. There is also a lot in terms of electronics because all the strategies that we had developed at a certain time in MotoGP were then transposed as they are on the Panigale.
“And even today there is a lot of Ducati Corse in the electronic development of the bike, and in its aerodynamics because the fins of the R are really derived from those that we had at one time in MotoGP when it was still possible. to use the fins. And then all the measures of the chassis were prepared, thought out and then developed by us, at Ducati Corse, according to the various tests on the track. So there is really a lot of Ducati DNA Corsica and MotoGP in the Panigale.”
The development of the Panigale entered in WorldSBK benefits the road model
Ducati applies this philosophy of technology transfer not only to MotoGP but also to other categories, such as WorldSBK and soon MotoE, which offer engineering challenges in their own right. The machines used in Superbike are directly derived from the series but offer different freedoms to those of MotoGP, useful for exploring other areas.
“As far as electronics are concerned, Superbike is currently much freer than MotoGP because there is no single software”underlined Dall’Igna. “In Superbike, there is still in-house software that we are constantly developing and with which we are constantly trying to find solutions, improvements so that our riders go faster and are safer.”
“It is also true that for everything else, so the cycle, the engine and the aero, MotoGP is freer and that is where our real test bench is, where we are developing technologies that we will transpose then on the new Panigales that will arrive Certainly, compared to MotoGP, the Superbike has limits compared to the production motorcycle, but it is precisely for this reason that it is important to develop the production motorcycle in order to try to make it as close as possible to what our MotoGP is and then also use these ideas, these novelties, in the Superbike championship.”
“So we try to develop and use the freedoms that the two championships allow in order to improve and learn, because in life it is fundamental to learn and develop new things, new ideas.”
With Lena Buffa