Chaz Davies has signed another contract with Ducati and will partner MotoGP exile Alvaro Bautista in the WorldSBK series next season - and he hopes the new Panigale V4 will at least enable him to carry on from where he is now.
Davies joined the Bologna team when the Panigale twin had a year's development on track and he has been a contender ever since.
“I feel like I am with the best manufacturer in the WorldSBK championship, in terms of history and with position we’re at today, they really are looking for big things with this new bike," said Davies.
“I came into Ducati when the Panigale R had been on track for a year, and it took a bit of time to make the bike competitive at every track. The twin is really strong bike still, but I think the lessons learnt will only help with the direction of the V4. Hopefully our starting pace is similar to what we have now.
“In the beginning you can knock big holes into what we try to achieve when the bike is quite fresh but now five years on the updates are more incremental, it’s more difficult to find the half tenth of a second.
"But that’s the exciting thing about the new bike, it’s like a clean slate. As well as the technology they are bringing to the table with it, the bike is based on the MotoGP™ bike a few years ago and it shares similar characteristics to that, so there’s a lot of cool stuff and I’m excited.”
Unable to get a ride on the V4S at World Ducati Week, he is looking forward to getting his first taste of the bike: “Unfortunately I was supposed to get a taste of the standard road bike a World Ducati Week, but I ended up breaking my collar bone, so that meant that that didn’t happen but they’ve been really good with communication surrounding the bike so far.
“Gigi (Dall’Igna) has said that he doesn’t want anyone to test the bike until it is really ready. He’s doing a great job in GP with the development of the GP18 over there, and he’s going to put his attention into the V4 which is what is needed to fight with Kawasaki.
“I believe in Ducati and they believe in me. The results are pretty evident with what they are doing in MotoGP, they have the power to bring some really good things to the table.”