DUCATI’S BOSS EXPLAINS THEIR MOVE TO V4

Claudio Domenicali, CEO Ducati I collared the Ducati boss and asked him how scary moving away from twins really was: ‘We were definitely worried how the change to the V4 engine would be taken by our customers. It’s a big move for Ducati because we’ve built our brand around a very special type of engine, and we thought a lot about it. But you have to consider the past, the present and the future. And this is a good move into the future for us. ‘It’s a non-typical V4. The way the crankshaft is set up (it counter rotates to reduce the gyroscopic forces resisting corner turn-in)and the way it delivers that torque sequence (two big bangs, a bit like a twin) to the rear wheel makes the bike very like a twin cylinder, so it’s like having a twin that revs to 15,000rpm. We would never have been able to reach this result without our Motogp project. We’ve got 15 years of experience in getting the drivability of the engine as well as the top-end performance.’