Ducati learned a hard lesson from the 999. For those who've ridden it, it's a brilliant bike, even today. It dominated in racing. It's great fun on the street.
And nobody bought it. The styling grows on some people, but it's no winner.
The 1098 won styling awards and ten years later is as timelessly beautiful as the 916. The Panigale's styling is very much an evolution of the 1098 and is equally, if not more stunning, so I expect the V-4 to continue that family resemblance. It's already a departure to go to four cylinders; why take risks on the styling? The market is what it is; it could be the best motorcycle ever built and make you sandwiches while you ride, but if it isn't sexy, people just won't bite.
Maybe it's the angle of the spy photo, but it looked to me like the engine was canted backwards. Ducati has learned a lot of lessons from the MotoGP program during Dall'Igna's current tenure. The V-4 is immensely powerful and I doubt reliability will be an issue. A V-4 layout that is canted slightly backwards, will also be a first.
And I'll bet you anything that the monocoque frameless design will continue, but this time it may mimic to some degree a perimeter frame. Now if it had a traditional Japanese style frame I wouldn't be remotely interested, but in the spy photos, the air intakes seem to come around from the outside to the space between the cylinders. I suspect those are load-bearing and if so, it's of great technological interest, just as Preziosi's box monocoque has been (failure in MotoGP notwithstanding).
And it's obvious to me why the Panigale will continue to be the machine raced in WSBK - every Ducati superbike going back to the 888 era has won a championship. The Panigale won't be retired until it too takes home that elusive trophy.
Who wants to bet that Ducati may offer Jonathan Rea Lorenzo's position at MotoGP? Lorenzo will surely want out after a ego-crushing season, and by hiring Rea...there'd be no one left in WSBK to stand between Davies/Melandri and the WSBK championship (Sykes is very quick and it would be a close battle but I'd put my money on Davies if the season plays out to a neck and neck shootout with Sykes). Rea gets a salary bump and a MotoGP ride, everyone wins.
