Breaking news

World Superbike

Davies ill-suited to Ducati V4, says Melandri

Chaz Davies' tall stature and naturally aggressive riding style make him a poor fit with Ducati's Panigale V4 R World Superbike contender, believes former teammate Marco Melandri.

Jamie Klein Lorenza D'Adderio

Published: May 12, 2020, 12:00 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Chaz Davies, ARUBA.IT Racing Ducati

Melandri and Davies were partners at the factory Ducati outfit in 2017 and '18, but Melandri lost his ride to MotoGP convert Alvaro Bautista in 2019 as the Italian marque replaced the two-cylinder Panigale R with the all-new V4 R.

The bike won the first 11 races of the season in the hands of Bautista, although the Spaniard went on to lose the title to Kawasaki's Jonathan Rea after sacrificing the championship lead with a series of crashes in the middle of the season.

Davies on the other hand suffered a much tougher campaign, coming away with a sole victory at Laguna Seca on his way to a distant sixth in the standings.

Former 250cc champion and MotoGP race winner Melandri, who retired following a disappointing season riding for GRT Yamaha in 2019, says he predicted Davies would struggle and that he would have suffered fewer falls than his replacement Bautista.

"I think that bike [the V4 R] was perfect for my riding style," Melandri told Motorsport.com. "You need a clean and precise riding style instead of being aggressive like Davies. But Ducati's plans were different, they had already made another choice for economic reasons.

"Maybe I would have been a little slower than Bautista, but I definitely would have crashed less.

"With an advantage like his, he could only lose the championship, as I said from the first race, and so he did. Just as I had mentioned what I thought Chaz's difficulties would be.

"After so many years riding a V2 with a very particular type of engine management, in my opinion he [Davies] was not suitable for the V4 and so it proved."

Read Also:

Ducati sporting director Paolo Ciabatti expressed confidence that Davies would be able to recover to the form that took him to 25 wins on the V2 between 2015 and '18, pointing out how much Bautista benefitted from his familiarity with Ducati's MotoGP machinery.

"Alvaro immediately found a magical feeling, I believe due to his [smaller] stature, riding style and experience in MotoGP," Ciabatti told Motorsport.com.

"The Panigale V4 R is conceptually derived from the Desmosedici [MotoGP bike]. The engine is derived from the MotoGP project, so he found himself riding the bike very naturally and required very few set-up changes.

"This bike has to be ridden in a very different way than a twin-cylinder bike, so people who were used to that bike like Chaz had more difficulty. Last year he scored a great victory at Laguna Seca, but it is clear that it is not enough for him or for us.

"We have understood what needs to be done and what he needs to do to find this feeling that he hadn't found last year."

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article World Superbike cancels Oschersleben round

Next article Ducati interested in working with Bayliss's son Oli

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Why aerodynamics will become "even more important" under 2027 MotoGP regulations

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Qatar GP

13 min

Why aerodynamics will become "even more important" under 2027 MotoGP regulations

Sebastien Bourdais hopes latest WEC success will remind teams of his value

WEC

WEC WEC

Monza

1 h

Sebastien Bourdais hopes latest WEC success will remind teams of his value

"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

3 h

"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027

The lowdown on this year’s FIA F3 title protagonists

FIA F3

The lowdown on this year’s FIA F3 title protagonists

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts