Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/110408
P60 PREVIEW 2013 WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP Leon Camier will try to get the best out of the somewhat dated GSX-R1000. Ducati, and if anyone can make it a winner he can, although the choice of ex-BMW Italia rider Ayrton Badovini as his back-up is surprising, after his lackluster 2012 season. But Checa's former teammate at Team Althea, Davide Giugliano, opted to remain loyal to Genesio Bevilacqua, and didn't follow him in inking a factory Ducati ride. But the first key issue in making the new 1199 Panigale R competitive will be reliability, after the seven broken connecting rods experienced by one of the two British teams running the new Ducati in BSB racing in 2012 (it was eligible to race in the British series notwithstanding Ducati's refusal to homologate it for World Superbike – maybe that was why). One of the two teams running the uncompetitive bike – it was also forced to run a MoTeC control ECU, rather than Ducati's preferred Magneti Marelli - eventually swapped to Hondas in despair, but the new R-version's titanium rods will presumably do the trick in resolving this problem (World Superbike rules require a stock crank and rods to be used in a race motor). In that case, the issue with a 1200cc twin designed to rev high enough to deliver comparable power to a 1000cc four then becomes rideability, one reason that Checa insisted on testing the ultra short-stroke Panigale at tight and twisty Misano, with its four first-gear turns, before he agreed to race it this year - rather than at fast, swoopy Mugello where Ducati had done all its development testing. Alstare's engine R&D wizard Bruno Bailly has rejoined the team after a year with BMW, and he may well play a key role in making the new Italian V-twin reliable, and competitive. More than ever before with any new Ducati, even when the radical 916 replaced the 888 some 20 years ago, the jury's out on this one. Furthermore, unlike in previous years since World Superbike began 26 years ago, instead of an array of desmo V-twins bulking out the grid, there's just three Ducatis in the 2013 lineup, with Max Neukirchner returning to Superbike racing on a privateer Panigale. The reason for this is Ducati's refusal to extend the homologation of the outgoing 1098R model which took Checa to four race wins last season en route to fourth place in the 2012 points table, plus two more victories by Guintoli. So the bike that won a quarter of all the races held last season has been arbitrarily excluded from this year's series, even though there's no shortage of such bikes sitting there ready to be raced. That's one reason why the Effenbert Liberty Racing that ran them last season hasn't announced its plans. This move is widely viewed as a cynical marketing ploy which undermines the spirit of the Superbike category, since it's doubtlessly aimed at removing the likely probability of the radical new Panigale being beaten in races by the obsolescent 1098R Testastretta. Based on Checa's lap times in testing at Misano, this may well have happened at least initially. Ducati does not come out well in this scenario, especially as every time in the past it introduced a new model (888/916, 996 desmoquattro/998 testastretta, 998/999, and 999/1098) it always held over homologation of the older model so its customer teams could go on racing it for at least a season or two more. Not this time. CN