Chaz Davies

Hello there, have you FB’ers had a good month? Up, down, then up again here for me, but at least it’s not been boring! If I remember right I checked in with you after Qatar, where we sealed second place in the championship. Almost immediately afterwards we were zoomed off back to Italy though, because the EICMA show was on and Ducati had a bunch of special kit to show off.

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I was a part of their live show presentation, my own bit helping to introduce the new 959 Panigale Corse. Gotta say, and you may just expect this given I work for Ducati, but I love the paintjob on it. The matt red/white looks awesome. I don’t think the actual bike has changed a great deal bar the Öhlins suspension, but the 959 was already a pretty fly machine. And, of course, it’s still an L-twin, whereas the other big news was the introduction of the new V4 Panigale.

Contrary to many reports, I haven’t actually ridden one yet. And we won’t see the basis of the actual bike we’ll be racing in 2019, which I think will still be called the ‘R’, until sometime in 2018. Obviously the new Panigale is 1100cc, and that’s too much for WSB, so our R will be around 999cc. I would love to have a crack on the 1100 anyway, but I think the bike’s launch may clash with some testing we’re doing in late January. I’m sure I’ll get a pop soon.