BSB: Brookes on first V4 test: 'I feel like I'm on a MotoGP bike!'

Josh Brookes has said Ducati’s V4 R ‘feels like a MotoGP bike’ after his first laps aboard the superbike-spec machine in Jerez.

Brookes and team-mate Redding are in Spain for their first taste of Ducati’s new superbike weapon with the PBM team, riding two of Chaz Davies’ and Alvaro Bautista’s World Superbike-spec machines.

However, while the WSB-spec V4 boasts Magneti Marelli electronics, Ducati Corse engineer Giovanni Crupi, who will be Redding’s crew chief next year, has turned off all rider aids including traction control and wheelie control to get as close to the BSB regulations as possible.

The day got off to a soggy and foggy start, but Brookes was first out of the PBM garage on wet tyres when the track started to dry up. He has since done another session on slicks as the track continues to improve.

“In the first session I rode I was on wet tyres but the track is 90% dry, so they got hot straight away and were moving around underneath me, but I then came in and changed to slicks,” Brookes told MCN.

“It’s still a nervous environment as I’m riding on slicks into corners with wet patches and then accelerating over water so I can’t relax!”

“It might sound strange, but I feel like I’m on a MotoGP bike… the noise, the fairing shape etc. For Scott coming from a MotoGP bike, I’m sure he thinks it feels like a pit scooter but for me coming from a superbike, the bike feels GP style. It feels racey, it’s super stiff and precise for superbike-spec and I noticed that a lot in the wet as the bike wanted a tyre that was stuck to the track!”

Picture: Steve English