IN
THE
WIND
P40
Kawasaki Planning "Extreme"
ZX-10RR For WorldSBK 2020
I
t has been a dismal start to
the FIM World Superbike
Championship for everyone
except Ducati that has taken
all 11 race wins on offer so far
with new rider Alvaro Bautista
and the Panigale V4 R.
However, none are feel-
ing the pinch more so than
current champions Kawasaki
Racing Team with their ZX-
10RR and Jonathan Rea who
have suffered the indignity of
barely challenging Bautista in
the races so far in Australia,
Thailand, Spain and Holland.
That fact has not sat well
with Kawasaki Race Direc-
tor, Ichiro Yoda, who has
slammed the Ducati project
as a "MotoGP bike on Pirellis" and vows
Kawasaki will come back with an all-new
machine to challenge in 2020.
"Catching Ducati this season is dif-
ficult," said Yoda to German publication
Speedweek. "Their engine comes from
the MotoGP World Championship—their
whole package is from MotoGP. This is a
MotoGP bike with Pirelli tires. Even if we
were allowed to use concession parts, we
would be limited. With the homologated
concession parts, we cannot reach the
performance of the Ducati. We would not
be able to reach their speed."
Does that mean Kawasaki will need to
produce a new, limited edition ZX-10RR
for the 2020 WorldSBK Championship?
"That's the solution," Yoda says. "We
have to become more competitive and
think about a MotoGP-like bike. An
extreme bike that we produce in limited
numbers in series. For Kawasaki, it is
easy to build 500 such motorcycles. But
I have doubts about this direction. Is this
way right or not? For 2015, the costs have
been reduced, thus the performance was
less. From 2014 to 2015, the four-cylinder
lost 20 hp—the performance of Ducati
was then the same with the Twin.
"We have a lot of experience from
MotoGP with such powerful four-cylinder
engines, which is easy for us. Internally,
Kawasaki thinks that if Ducati continues
with this bike next season, we need
a machine like that. We are not in the
championship just to be there. If we bring
a motorcycle with a similar concept, then
we can beat Bautista and Ducati." CN
Kawasaki Race
Director Ichiro
Yoda is sick
and tired of
getting smoked
in WorldSBK
and is planning
something big for
2020.
