1199 Panigale S (2012 - present) review

I'M SURE you won't have any sympathy when I tell you I could have done with more time on Ducati's new 1199 Panigale S at the Yas Marina F1 circuit in Abu Dhabi.

That's not to say I didn't have enough time to review the Panigale in the four sessions we had but with each session under my belt the Panigale just felt better and better. In the spirit of past Ducati superbikes, this is a proper rider's bike.

Before we go into how the bike rides, I want to run you through some of the technology involved because, even though electronics aren't widely accepted as being a good thing, they play a vital part in how this bike feels. First there's DTC which is Ducati's Traction Control. Don't get this confused with the DTC of old, this new iteration is so much smoother the the last. Then there's DQS, which is Ducati's Quick Shift, it helps you feed in gears with such speed you wonder whether it's actually cheating. Then there's EBC, which is Ducati's Engine Brake Control, designed to help keep the rear wheel behaving on rapid downshifts. EBC wasn't my cup of tea but it definitely contributes to the bike's feel.

Barely three corners in and what stood out to me - and continued to stand out throughout the day - was the engine. Not how much power it makes - although it does make a lot - but how it delivers its power. It is so smooth off the bottom and feels completely different to the 1198SP. The 1198SP, although a good bike, just isn't as usable in lower gears as you'd like it to be. To be honest, I thought the 1199 Panigale was going to be more extreme but it just isn't. It has precisely the amount of drive you want, not need, but definitely not such an excess that you wince every time you open the throttle out of a hairpin.

Want to know more? Read the full Ducati Panigale S review.

I'M SURE you won't have any sympathy when I tell you I could have done with more time on Ducati's new 1199 Panigale S at the Yas Marina F1 circuit in Abu Dhabi.

That's not to say I didn't have enough time to review the Panigale in the four sessions we had but with each session under my belt the Panigale just felt better and better. In the spirit of past Ducati superbikes, this is a proper rider's bike.

Before we go into how the bike rides, I want to run you through some of the technology involved because, even though electronics aren't widely accepted as being a good thing, they play a vital part in how this bike feels. First there's DTC which is Ducati's Traction Control. Don't get this confused with the DTC of old, this new iteration is so much smoother the the last. Then there's DQS, which is Ducati's Quick Shift, it helps you feed in gears with such speed you wonder whether it's actually cheating. Then there's EBC, which is Ducati's Engine Brake Control, designed to help keep the rear wheel behaving on rapid downshifts. EBC wasn't my cup of tea but it definitely contributes to the bike's feel.

Barely three corners in and what stood out to me - and continued to stand out throughout the day - was the engine. Not how much power it makes - although it does make a lot - but how it delivers its power. It is so smooth off the bottom and feels completely different to the 1198SP. The 1198SP, although a good bike, just isn't as usable in lower gears as you'd like it to be. To be honest, I thought the 1199 Panigale was going to be more extreme but it just isn't. It has precisely the amount of drive you want, not need, but definitely not such an excess that you wince every time you open the throttle out of a hairpin.

Want to know more? Read the full Ducati Panigale S review.