Leon Haslam will fill the vacant seat at the factory BMW WorldSBK seat at Imola this weekend, following Tom Sykes' injury at Donington.
The UK round of WorldSBK was dominated by Ducati. But, without long straights to exploit their power advantage, where did the Panigale's strength come from?
A lack of wildcard entries in WorldSBK in recent years has raised the question of whether the rules are working against national-level teams and riders.