Coming short of the S1000RR in power would be no surprise; good examples of those are pretty much certainly making over 200HP at the crank. But even if the 1199 makes 190-ish (168 or so at the tire), the flatter delivery will make it "feel" slower. Same reason my Daytona feels slower than an R6. More on the bottom and middle means the top end hit isn't so noticeable.
EDIT: forgot to add; as far as the mostly gushing press so far, that's also no surprise. It's the first ground-up new Ducati superbike in decades and is unquestionably lighter, faster and more agile than any that preceded it with lots of bells and whistles to play with. Toss in the locale and lack of other bikes to benchmark against and there you are - smiles all around!
Safe to say the above will still hold true even after comparison testing, but some real-world, back-to-back swap-out riding will flesh out the real nature of the Panigale versus its rivals.
EDIT: forgot to add; as far as the mostly gushing press so far, that's also no surprise. It's the first ground-up new Ducati superbike in decades and is unquestionably lighter, faster and more agile than any that preceded it with lots of bells and whistles to play with. Toss in the locale and lack of other bikes to benchmark against and there you are - smiles all around!
Safe to say the above will still hold true even after comparison testing, but some real-world, back-to-back swap-out riding will flesh out the real nature of the Panigale versus its rivals.
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