Alvaro Bautista deserves the credit for Ducati’s current domination of World Superbikes not just the outstanding performance of the new Panigale V4 R, according to Ducati’s Sporting director Paolo Ciabatti.
Ciabatti dismisses claims that the high-revving Panigale is the sole reason reason for success with Bautista bringing a new level to WorldSBK. Bautista’s latest double in the Assen round took his unbeaten run to 11 consecutive SBK race wins, including Superpole races. He has humbled the once unbeatable four–time world champion Jonny Rea and the Kawasaki ZX-10RR.
“It’s clear that without Alvaro we would now be talking about the continuing dominance of Rea who would have won 10 of the eleven races, there has been no other Ducati ahead of him except Bautista,” Ciabatti said. “Without these wins everyone would have said Ducati came with V4 but could not beat the Kawasaki. The Panigale V4 R is very competitive but we think Alvaro is making the difference.
“We knew Alvaro would take the level the superbike field a little bit higher although he is doing better than even we expected. His match with the bike is excellent.
“The engine character of the Panigale is similar to MotoGP. Last October at Phillip Island we saw that on a factory bike Alvaro was capable of fighting for the podium in MotoGP.
“We brought Alvaro to superbikes to have the strongest possible team to win the championship. There is no doubt that without Alvaro we would be talking about Rea and Kawasaki dominating for the fifth year in a row.”
Bautista, WorldSBK Race3, WorldSBK Aragon 2019
By Colin Young