The 2025 Panigale V4 is the fourth new or updated V4 to be released since 2018. Each iteration has taken steps toward being more composed at speed, but the 2025 version is a leap forward more than it is a small stride down the same path.

By Bradley Adams  Courtesy CycleWorld

The 2025 Ducati Panigale V4 is the most forward-looking mass-production superbike of the modern sportbike era, but I can’t help but look to past versions as I throw a leg over the new bike. The last Panigale V4 I rode was a 2023 V4 SP2 during Cycle World’s superbike shootout. It was stunning, fast, and had an obvious electronic edge, albeit with the temperament of an ornery bull that had little intention of letting the rider off easy. The rawness and brute force allowed for a fast lap time, but you weren’t getting there without working for it.

Ducati recognizes that the Panigale’s exactness has always been a fly in its otherwise stellar ointment. Engineers softened the edges following the launch of the potent but overly stiff 2018 Panigale V4, first in 2020 and later in 2022. If those model year updates were Ducati showing that less can be more, then the 2025 model is it going all in on the belief that the fastest motorcycles are the ones that are easiest to ride. And the 2025 Panigale V4 S is a very, very fast motorcycle.

Spot the differences? Hint, there are a lot. Interestingly, one of the biggest design targets for 2025 was to have the double-sided swingarm but still have the exhaust mounted under the engine.

How Did We Get Here?

Ducati’s philosophy stems from racing. Yes, a “friendlier” motorcycle will have some advantages on the street and work well for the casual rider, but the less on edge and physically demanding a motorcycle is, the more a top-level rider can sustain riding at its limits. Performance is an incredible thing, but so too is having a little brain capacity and stamina left to focus on racecraft.

Peel the layers back, as we were able to do at a ride event for the Panigale V4 S that included incredibly open conversations with Ducati personnel, and you’ll realize there’s more strategic reasons behind Ducati’s technical evolutions—namely the new double-sided swingarm. Why here, and why now? Especially after the almost apologetic return to a single-sided arm on its 2007 1098 superbikes following the capable-yet-shunned 999 with conventional swingarm that preceded it.

The Panigale’s new swingarm is referred to as Ducati Hollow Symmetrical Swingarm, which presumably allows Ducati to have to use the words “double sided” less in any discussion about the bike. Big cutouts reduce weight, physically and visually. The work Ducati has done to keep the exhaust under the engine is appreciated in that the muffler doesn’t cover the new arm.

The simple answer, according to those close to the project, is that Ducati Corse wants to leverage information gleaned from chassis development in MotoGP. What benefit is it to learn things there if you can’t apply those lessons to the World Superbike effort? Especially when, in both cases, tires and suspension are asking more of the chassis than ever—and at deeper lean angles.

Given World Superbike’s homologation-based rules package, the only way to create overlap between MotoGP prototype and production-based racing was to transition the Panigale to a double-sided swingarm. Racing drives Ducati’s decisions, as it has with nearly every change to the 2025 Panigale V4. Ducati is a performance company first, and a sentimental, style-driven company somewhere on the priority list after that.

Designers were tasked with paying homage to the iconic 916 and have absolutely succeeded. This is a stunning motorcycle when viewed in person, with exceptional attention to detail. Everything is very clearly designed with one thing in mind: a faster lap time.

The decision to upend the norm wasn’t taken lightly. It started with management tasking Ducati Corse with designing a double-sided swingarm using mass-production methods (a cast design with no special machining), as well as a single-sided swingarm with the same stiffness targets. Testing between these bikes and a previous-generation Panigale began in early 2021 and took place across three tracks: Vallelunga, Cremona, and Mugello.

“I think that in Ducati’s story, we never made such a big development activity,” says Carlo Ricci Maccarini, Panigale V4 development team leader, when asked about what that process looked like. “I can say that the answer did not come [snaps fingers] like that, because we found a positive and negative in every situation, but finally looking at the overall rider feeling and overall lap-time saving, the double-sided won the comparison. The answer was there.”

The 2025 Panigale V4 is the first production bike to use Brembo’s Hypure brake calipers, which are absolutely brilliant in terms of braking power and consistency.

The result is a swingarm with identical longitudinal rigidity (for stability under braking and acceleration), but 37 percent less lateral rigidity, which offers better feedback, grip, and better bump absorption at deeper lean angles, where the suspension is less effective (suspension is most effective in a vertical plane). Ducati says overall “rear-end” weight is reduced by 5.9 pounds, a number that includes suspension components, swingarm, and the forged wheel that come standard on the up-spec V4 S, so direct component comparisons to the single-sided setup become a challenge.

Further, the V4 S is different from the base-model V4 in that it uses an Öhlins NPX 30 fork, Öhlins TTX 36 shock, and Öhlins steering damper, compared to a Showa Big Piston Fork (BPF), Sachs shock, and Sachs steering damper. You also get the aforementioned forged aluminum wheels versus cast aluminum hoops, and a lithium battery (versus lead acid). Electronic suspension on the V4 S is controlled by a third-generation SmartEC 3.0 system and can be run in customizable Fixed or Active modes. The suspension uses Öhlins’ newer spool valve design (versus needle valve) that provides increased sensitivity and responsiveness at the low and high ends of the adjustment range, and very much deserves its own story. Paging Mr. Cameron; Mr. Kevin Cameron…

An Öhlins NPX 30 fork replaces the Showa fork on the base-model V4 and enables a wide range of settings between Fixed and Active modes. Given the advancements in electronic suspension and incredible performance that perfectly conceals active changes, it’s hard to make an argument for anything other than these systems.

Perhaps more important is that the philosophies driving Ducati’s new swingarm were carried over to the new front frame, which has 40 percent less lateral stiffness and is 1.6 pounds lighter. More upgrades come in the form of Brembo’s new Hypure brake calipers, which are lighter weight thanks to a more efficient material distribution, have better heat dissipation, and are said to have improved pad life.

Viewed independently, these are all really nice parts, but bring them together as Ducati has done with the Panigale V4 S and you have something quite special, as evidenced by our day at Vallelunga Circuit, an incredibly unique track that flip-flops between an eye-watering series of fast corners and hairpins that are tight to an extreme.