Promising Ducati 1199 lap times at Phillip Island SBK test (SPOILER ALERT)

when it comes to eugene laverty its skill screw the bike if he wash on a duc he woulda killed it even more ! that aprilia is a beast man but the ducati did great!!!! eugene worked his way up one by one man

They sure got some horses out of the Suzuki but couldn't make it last like the aprilia. Good gifts from Chaz though he was off a few seconds to the top

Overall not a bad weekend at all for the Ducati's, although I was disappointed in Canepa not winning at least one of the EVO class races. The Panigales look like they'll be podium competitive this season, which is a definite improvement over last year and will certainly make for an even more entertaining season. Chaz geting the fastest race lap of the weekend is a nice consolation, but it appears the tire issues were just too subststantial to overcome at this circuit. I felt like Giugliano was holding back in the second race with intentions to make a strong push for the podium, but the race ending early via red flag obviously curtailed those plans. I'll be interested to see where the Panigales end up on a smaller track.

I will say I'm very surprised the Aprilias are still showing this much power. I have a suspicion they took the new rules a little personally and are choosing to gamble with the reliability to maintain a competitive advantage. Suzuki looks to have done the same, although it evidently didn't work out for them over the span of both races. Considering all eight engines are sealed, this may seriously hamper their competitiveness as the only way to compensate will be to detune.

Well I liked the race(s). I think the Ducatis did well considering they are still down on Hp and top speeds, mid race top speeds were 8 to 10 mph slower than everyone else. I also think the Ducati is still rear tire dependent. This track showed it.

I expected a little more from Canepa, but at the same time this is the longest race he's had to run on a Panigale. STKK is usually half that distance.

laverty the is definitely the talent to watch. It will be interesting to see all the bikes on tighter tracks where top speeds are muted a bit.

Overall the coverage was good and I really believe the rest of the season will be a knife fight between all the manufactures, which is a welcome change

Thamer said:

Well I liked the race(s). I think the Ducatis did well considering they are still down on Hp and top speeds, mid race top speeds were 8 to 10 mph slower than everyone else. I also think the Ducati is still rear tire dependent. This track showed it.

Click to expand...

Correct analysis.

I was there this Sunday and walked the circuit (Turn 1-2 and Siberia during race 1 and turn 11-12 in race 2).
It was clear how for the first half of the race Giuliano was closing the gaps on the corners and was getting smashed on the straights. During the second half the rear tire gave up and he couldn't keep up with the pace, the wobbling was impressive when he tried to push harder.
I think the gixers stretched the engine a lot for the race one result.
Aprilia is still very strong and for me the most balanced bike this year... again.
BMW ....MIA...why? Munich why u not racing??? It would have been an amazing championship with the Germans in!

Guys, I am heading back from the Island now after a great 3 days. I even got to get in and visit the Ducati pit garage, I will post some pictures later.

The Ducati's were competitive all weekend, there is such a small amount between the bikes, I think it will have a good year. As for Canepa they are still working things out with the Evo bike. I visited the pit garage, and it looks just like a R road bike, with nothing really exotic. Amazing when you see the full Superbike next to it. Oh, and his coach in his corner was Troy Bayliss, so you can see what Ducati is focusing on. They will spend the year getting ready for next years rules for sure, actually all the teams were doing the same with Evo bikes.

The Kawasaki's I think have had to wind back their engines to last the new 6 engine rule, but the Suzuki's and Aprilia's were still unbelievably fast, they went past Guigliano like he was standing still.

Anyway, a good start for the season, but the one to watch will be the development of the Evo bikes. Canepa qualified above a number of Superbikes and it is essentially an R so very impressive indeed. A lot of teams had tyre troubles, it was a hot and fast day, so some results did not come.
Also Chaz Davies had a massive off in practice and was
struggling to race at all. Some guys didn't survive practice as the pace was very quick all weekend with teams trying a lot of new things.

They will regroup now in Europe in a few weeks, so let's see what happens, but I like. Canepa for the Evo title already.

DucSyd said:

The Kawasaki's I think have had to wind back their engines to last the new 6 engine rule,

Click to expand...

Minor correction here: the EVOs have a six engine limit for the season whereas the full-spec Superbikes have an eight engine limit.

On another note, in one of the post interviews Chaz mentioned tire wear was much improved in the second race, but that he experienced some electronic issues early on that caused him to lose time. Considering how dependent the Panigale is on tire grip and that much of the electronics have been carried over from the MotoGP (which hopefully implies Ducati has enough experience with the system to quickly debug any issues), I'd say this is a good sign moving forward.

Supposedly the electronics issue in Race 2 was due to a rock going through his front fairing and severing an electrical connector.

Do any of you guys remember the 1990's and 2000's when the Ducati, and V-Twins in general, were supposedly better on tire wear and that gave them an advantage in racing?

I guess 50 more HP since those days has thrown that out the window and now electronics systems rule the roost. The most sophisticated systems like Kawasaki's that runs the ZX-10R like a twin on corner entry and mid-corner, with inline-4 power on the exits and straights - all while managing tire life at the same time are where it's at. But all that ends next year with the EVO rules, I bet Honda has been planning on incorporating this for their new bike (which Steve Martin confirmed already exists during the race this weekend) and they will be the ones to actually come in and eat everyone's lunch for the next few years in SBK.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see several of the teams fall foul of the 8 engine rule this year. You do wonder if Suzuki have taken a punt with the engine which hasn't worked out, the jump up the grid has been fairly sudden regardless of rider changes. The team I really expected to struggle was Aprilia, they've used a shed load of motors over the last few years. Anyway a good opening weekend, you certainly feel there is promise for Ducati too.