With the 2024 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship about to start a frantic run-in, key personnel from the paddock spoke during the last round at Portimao about their seasons, challenges and more. After hearing from Team Manager Serafino Foti for the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati outfit, now Ducati’s WorldSBK Technical Coordinator, Marco Zambenedetti, has given his thoughts on the Bologna-based manufacturer’s campaign and the next steps for riders Alvaro Bautista and Nicolo Bulega.

AN EXTRA CHALLENGE: new rules for 2024

One key aspect heading into 2024 was how the new rider weight rules would impact smaller riders, including Bautista, and Zambenedetti spoke about how Ducati faced this extra challenge with Bautista. He also stated that, while they seem to have found a solution for the reigning Champion from Most, more work needs to be done to ensure that’s the case.

He said: “This year, we faced this new challenge as Ducati with Alvaro having some ballast on the bike. We tried several configurations of ballast and, of course, every configuration needs its proper setting. We’ve learnt a lot compared to last year. For sure, some performances in some areas have been decreased because of the bike with more mass. We also learnt how big the impact of increasing the overall weight with this smaller rider. It seems, from Most, we have found something that gives Alvaro a better feeling. Now we’ve had a couple of rounds in this configuration and also with, let me say, special tyres. We are looking forward to seeing if this configuration will work with the standard Pirelli tyre allocations, also with the softer compound. We hope to have found our best configuration.”

DEVELOPING THROUGH 2024: “We need to go home at the end of the race and push our bike harder to the limit..."

Manufacturers are always looking to refine their package to find the smallest gains, and Ducati are no exception to this as they look to make their Panigale V4 R even quicker. Zambenedetti admitted that the competition level has increased this year due to various factors and that the Italian brand are working in a 360-degree way to find improvements.

Explaining the developments throughout 2024, Zambenedetti said: “This year, the new match of BMW with Toprak and the superconcessions introduced by other competitors – Kawasaki, BMW, Honda – increase the level of competition against us. We need to go home at the end of races and push our bike harder to the limit. We work in a 360-degree way on the overall bike development, especially on the engine side so we developed different exhausts for Nicolo, different ballast configuration for Alvaro, different electronic settings. We worked a lot on the engine mapping and we’re still working. We have a lot to do especially with the introduction of the E40 eco fuel and the reduction of the fuel tank which affects us. It’s an area where we never worked but we have to push until the last race of the season.”

POST FRANCE TEST: heading to Aragon, new parts to come?

A few days after the French Round, Ducati are one of a few outfits heading to MotorLand Aragon for testing. Zambenedetti revealed that there will be new components for Bautista and Bulega to try at the Spanish circuit, as they look to end the season on a high and take the fight to Championship leader Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team).

On testing and any potential new parts, Zambenedetti said: “For the last rounds, we would like to improve. For this reason, we have planned a test after Magny-Cours at Aragon to prepare for the race but also to test with both riders some parts, to try to improve the last part of the season. With Nicolo, we just started before Misano to adapt his riding position on the bike to optimise it. We have several components that we would like to test with him that could help him in the entry and corner speed. They’re chassis parts. We have something else in terms of engine that we need to prepare at home and propose to him. For this reason, at the Aragon test, we’d like to try some parts, trying to push as much as possible for the rest of the season.”

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