Ducati Panigale V4 / V4S (2025) – Technical Review

Is this the most controversial Ducati superbike launch in more than two decades? It might be because even the switch from V-twin to V4 engines didn’t cause as much stir among the Ducatisti as the new 2025 Panigale V4’s switch from the company’s beloved single-sided swingarm to a double-sided design.

We’ll get to that in a moment but look past it and the 2025 Panigale V4 is a radical revamp that draws more than ever on its MotoGP heritage and promises to deliver performance that comes within a whisker of the bikes that have been dominating the premier class for the last few years.

Pros & Cons

New Ducati Panigale V4 2025

2025 Ducati Panigale V4 - Price

The base version of Ducati’s new 2025 Panigale V4 R slides in at £24,395 while the lighter S version with higher-spec suspension is £29,995. For each model that represents a price increase of around £2000 – the 2024 Panigale V4 lists at £22,295 and the V4 S at £27,995, but with the new models due to hit the street in September there might be some haggle room on the previous generation if you can find a dealer with one in stock.

Whether you pick the base version or the ‘S’ model, you had better like red paint. That’s the only colour that’s being offered initially, although the V4 S has a black front mudguard to pick it out, as well as gold fork legs instead of gunmetal grey ones – a set of identifiers that date back decades in Ducati superbike lore.

2025 Ducati Panigale V4 - Engine & Performance

The 1103cc Desmosedici Stradale V4 engine might have the same capacity, name and essential layout as the previous Panigale V4’s motor, but it’s undergone some substantial revisions for the 2025 model year. As before it has a reverse-rotating crankshaft, like the Desmosedici GP race bikes, and the same ‘twin pulse’ firing order and 81mm bore combined with a 53.5mm stroke. However, the new bike gets different camshafts with more valve lift than before and borrows parts from higher-spec models including the alternator and oil pump from the Panigale V4 R homologation special and the gearbox drum from the uber-exotic Superleggera V4.

The engine breathes in through variable-length intake horns, as before, but their range of travel is increased. That means in ‘short’ setting, they’re now 10mm stubbier than the old Panigale’s at 25mm, while in ‘long’ mode they’re 5mm longer at 80mm. That should give a broader spread of torque, although the absolute torque peak now arrives rather higher in the rev range than before at 11,250rpm (previously 9500rpm) and is slightly less brawny at 89.2lb-ft instead of the old 91.2 lb-ft.

Peak power, by contrast, rises a fraction from 215.5hp to 216hp, and the engine hits that maximum at 13,500rpm instead of 13,000rpm.

The exhaust is new, of course, to suit the double-sided swingarm, and the new engine meets the latest Euro 5+ emissions limits, with a total of six lambda sensors instead of the previous four to monitor the performance of the catalytic converters.

However, like the higher-revving V4 R, the new Panigale V4 engine benefits disproportionately in the power stakes when fitted with a race-only exhaust. Ducati is offering two track-only Akrapovič systems – one with two high-mounted exits, that pushes peak power to 228hp, and a belly-mounted version with a 224hp maximum. A street legal Akrapovič belly exhaust is also optional.

Like its predecessor, the new V4 has cylinder deactivation at idle, cutting the rear bank when the water temperature is above 75 degrees to improve rider comfort.

2025 Ducati Panigale V4 Handling & Suspension (inc. Weight & Brakes)

Ok, here we go… There's a double sided swingarm instead of a single-sider. No! Come back! Let me finish! It’s a good thing, or so Ducati says.

Even when the switch to a dual-sided design was only rumoured, Ducati forums were alight with disgruntled fans making uncharitable references to the 2003 Ducati 999, which was always in for a hard time as the replacement to the original 916 styling of its predecessor, the 998, and compounded that by using a dual-sided swingarm – something Ducati ditched with the launch of the 1098 in 2007.

Just as on the 999 (which we should remember was a huge success in racing, despite being the red-headed stepchild in Ducati circles today) the reason for the change is one of performance. Ducati says it back-to-backed the double-sided arm and a single-sider on the track and found not only that the two-sided version was faster outright but that riders preferred it. Of course, the Desmosedici MotoGP bikes don’t use single-sided swingarms for precisely that reason, and Ducati will be hoping that customers will accept the change as one that’s an overall benefit to the bike.

The swingarm, as you might have noticed, isn’t a conventional one. It’s a hollow aluminium casting and, unlike most rivals, it’s symmetrical, while still leaving space for the signature under-engine exhaust system of the Panigale.

It’s actually less laterally rigid than the old single-sided arm, by a not-inconsiderable 37 percent, in the pursuit of maximising the grip available from the latest generation of tyres, which allow the bike to corner at lean angles of more than 60 degrees. It’s also better at getting the power down and, despite being a lot longer than the old swingarm, it’s more than 3kg lighter.

That extra length pushes the wheelbase out by 16mm compared to the previous Panigale, taking it to a substantial 1485mm. That, surprisingly, is longer than the wheelbase of a Suzuki Hayabusa (1480mm) and reflects modern thinking in motorcycle chassis design that allows sharp steering without an ultra-short wheelbase.

While the 2025 Panigale V4’s frame design is similar to the previous model, with a ‘front frame’ and a structural engine, the front frame section’s lateral stiffness has been reduced by 40% to give better feedback from the front tyre, with the side effect of reducing its weight by 730g.

The suspension of the base Panigale V4 feature 43mm Showa BPF forks, adjustable for compression, rebound and preload, plus a Sachs rear shock – also fully adjustable. Sachs provides the steering damper as well.

Splash out on the V4 S and you get a substantial upgrade to Ohlins NPX30 forks and  TTX36 shock, both with Ducati’s ‘DES 3.0’ electronic suspension, and an Ohlins steering damper that’s also electronically controlled. The ‘S’ model also gets forged aluminium wheels instead of the standard cast ones, and both versions use Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP dual compound tyres.

Ducati hasn’t left the brakes alone, of course. The 2025 Panigale V4 and V4 S both get the latest Brembo Hypure calipers instead of the previous Stylema, with less weight and improved heat rejection. These calipers also create up to 15% less drag on the discs when the brakes are off, with a resulting improvement in performance and emissions. They work on 330mm discs, with not only cornering ABS but also the first ‘Race eCBS’ combined braking system, developed with Bosch. It can apply up to 15.5% of braking force to the rear and has no fewer than seven selectable levels – 1-5 are designed for tack riding, 6 and 7 for the road.

In the most extreme mode, level 1, the Race eCBS uses a ‘Track Plus’ strategy that trails the rear brake to the apex, even once the front brake has been released, without you having to touch the rear brake pedal – replicating the type of braking that MotoGP riders do.

2025 Ducati Panigale V4 - Comfort & Economy

Although the 2025 Panigale looks familiarly like its predecessors at a quick glance, a side-by-side comparison reveals that the new bike’s shape is substantially different and adopts a stance that’s more reminiscent of the old 916 than the forward-hunched appearance of its direct forebears.

That’s in part due to a conscious decision to increase the open space between the front wheel and the fairing – copying a recent MotoGP trend that’s intended to make bikes less susceptible to crosswinds and to make it easer to turn into corners at high speed. The result is a slimmer-looking side fairing, which is also simplified with fewer cooling ducts than the old Panigale. The tank is also more 916-shaped, looking longer and slimmer than the previous Panigale V4, and the theme continues to the nose where the old bike’s triangular air intakes under the headlights have been eliminated, leaving a more classical front treatment with lights that, once again, take their inspiration from the 916. It might have debuted 30 years ago, but the echoes of Tamburini’s classic design still reverberate loudly around the halls of Ducati’s styling studio.

The new bike’s seat is both longer and wider than the previous one, gaining 35mm in length and 50mm in breadth to boost comfort and allow a wider range of riding positions. The pegs, meanwhile, are moved inwards by 10mm, and the fuel tank’s design is intended to give riders a better grip with their knees.

Fuel consumption probably isn’t a major concern to most Panigale V4 customers, but the new 2025 bike is quoted as hitting 43.5 mpg, and with a 17-litre tank that means a theoretical range of about 160 miles between fill-ups.

From a practicality perspective, the service intervals are still impressively spread, with up to 7500 miles/12 months between dealer visits, and no valve clearances to adjust until 15,000 miles.

2025 Ducati Panigale V4 - Equipment

As with all recent Panigales, the latest model is packed with rider-assistance electro-wizardry to eke every last fraction of a second from a lap time, and the list of initialisms denoting those features is vast. But the long and short of it is that the bike has all the launch control, traction control, cornering ABS, slide control, quickshifters and engine braking controls that you could shake a stick at, and most of them have a whole array of sub-settings that mean you could spend longer hunting through menus and making tweaks than actually riding the bike.
But the big news for the 2025 model is that most of these electronics are now overseen by a new system that the company calls ‘Ducati Vehicle Observer’ or DVO. This uses the six-axis IMU to simulate inputs from more than 70 imaginary sensors to refine the control strategies. The company says the system was developed by Ducati Corse for MotoGP and that it can estimate the ground forces acting on the bike and the level of load it can bear in a variety of riding conditions, use that information to tailor the settings of the rider assistance systems.

On board, you’re faced with a new 6.9-inch TFT display that can now include real-time information about G-forces – both lateral and longitudinal – and even show what percentage of the bike’s power and torque are being used compared to the maximum available. It also shows the real-time lean angle of the bike as well as the throttle and brake positions, rather like the on-board TV overlays we get to see on MotoGP coverage, except you’ll actually be riding the bike, not sitting on your sofa, when they appear in front of you.

More MotoGP similarities emerge in the form of a GPS-based lap timer that can give you three split times as well as the overall for the lap, with the same white, grey, orange and red colours that are used in MotoGP to denote performance in a sector.

As you’d expect, there’s an array of riding modes – Race A, Race B, Sport, Road and Wet – each modulating a host of settings for the rider assistance systems and altering the throttle response and, on the S model, the suspension settings. In Wet mode, power drops to 160hp.

2025 Ducati Panigale V4 - Rivals

The new Panigale has everything it needs on paper to be right at the top of the superbike tree, and its rivals are inevitably the sort of homologation superbikes that it’s race variant will be intended to compete with on track.

But bear in mind that we’ve yet to see the full crop of 2025-spec superbikes yet, so perhaps there will be a surprise alternative come next year. Not least, we’ll be keeping an eye open for Bimota’s new Kawasaki ZX-10RR-powered superbike that should be breaking cover before the end of 2024 and competing in WSBK in 2025.

BMW M1000RR | Price: £30,940

Read more

Power/Torque

212bhp / 83.3lb-ft

Weight

193kg (wet)

Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP | Price: £23,499

Read more

Power/Torque

214.6bhp / 83.3lb-ft

Weight

201kg (wet)

Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR | Price: £25,799

Read more

Power/Torque

200bhp / 81.9lb-ft

Weight

207kg (wet)

2025 Ducati Panigale V4 - Verdict

We’ll tell you when we’ve ridden it.

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2025 Ducati Panigale V4 - Technical Specification

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The higher the star rating, the better the security, so always ask your dealer what rating your bike has and compare it to other machines on your shortlist.