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Yes we know, the 959 Panigale is just barely 10 days old and were already looking forward to what replaces it.
But don't think of it as what will replace the 959, more of what will Ducati do next.
Let's be honest both the 959 and 1299 are likely at the end of their lifecycles. The 959 has already moved well outside the middle weight category and is ostensibly a full blown supersport, even though Ducati doesn't think so.
Stefano Tarabusi, project manager for the XDiavel is on record that the Superquadro is unlikely to receive any more displacement bumps, being big enough already.
French site MotoStation recently spoke to Stefano Strappazzon, product manager for Ducati's sporty offerings, he had a few interesting things to say about the sports arm of the brand moving forward.
When asked about the potential for Ducati to adopt a V4 layout similar to their GP bike Strappazzon responded with a curt I cannot comment.
But his most interesting response came when asked about Forced Induction: [I]Again, I absolutely can not reveal to you what is emerging at Ducati in the future. Naturally, we look at all the technologies and the compressor is an interesting solution, although motorcycle we have other constraints than by car: weight, cost, space requirements. Earlier, we mentioned all the stress related to the length exhaust manifolds. By car, if you need an additional 20 centimeters, it is not a big problem, but it becomes motorbike. And in technology, the bike should see considerable progress in the coming years, and this very quickly.[/I]
The way we see it, if MotoStation was that far off base you get a straight denial. No sir, not happening. But I cannot comment is extremely ambiguous and indicates to us that these are options still being weight in Bologna.
We'll see...