Early Ducati BSB performance “what I expected”, says one Honda rider

Josh Brookes says the immediate performance of the updated Ducati Panigale V4 R in BSB was to be expected.

Brookes had won the BSB title with Ducati in 2020 with the previous generation V4 R. That came after Scott Redding won the 2019 title. In 2023, Ducati won again with Tommy Bridewell.

The V4 R is updated for this season with a new swingarm, changes to the engine, and a refreshed aerodynamics package. The difference, according to Scott Redding, is more significant from the 2025 bike to this year than that he felt between the 2021 bike and 2025.

The model generation between 2021 and 2025 was the same, but of course there were three years of development in between.

Some of this year’s Ducati BSB teams were able to test at both the Donington and Oulton Park tests during April, including the Bathams team with Storm Stacey and the new MET fonaCAB team with Andrew Irwin. Others, like the Nitrous Competitions team and PBM, were only able to get on-track at the second test at Oulton Park.

Despite missing the first test, it was Nitrous Competitions and PBM that topped the test at Oulton Park, with Kyle Ryde fastest in his first test on a BSB-spec Ducati and Scott Redding second.

For Brookes, the speed of the new bike was nothing to be surprised by, despite the inexperience some of the teams have with it.

“It’s what I expected,” Brookes said, speaking to Crash.net after the Oulton Park test on 22 April.

“It would be unrealistic to think that a brand and teams of the calibre, with the riders that they all have, to turn up and be poor in performance. 

“The bikes are a known quantity, they work good in BSB, riders on them are class. 

“So, anything but what we’ve seen would be the surprise, not what we’ve seen.”

BSB returns to Oulton Park on 2–4 May for the opening round of the 2026 season.