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As the spread of the coronavirus continues, motorcycle manufacturers in Europe (especially in Italy) are having to continuously adjust their plans and expectations.

Accordingly, we get news that Ducati Motor Holding will continue to suspend and augment its factory activities through March 25th, pushing back its reopen date as the situation in Italy continues to worsen.

For the Italian brand, the move isn’t a total disruption, as the factory was already slated for closure between March 13th and today, March 18th.

Is there too much coronavirus in your motorcycle inbox?  Have you shot a complete stranger a dirty look because they sneezed in public? Are you doing that ridiculous foot greeting thing instead of shaking hands?

Let’s take a break from what will surely become the zombie apocalypse, and allow us this two-wheeled distraction designed to get your pulse racing in a way that won’t land you in quarantine zone.

Accordingly, we have over 100 high-resolution photos of the 2020 Ducati Panigale V4 to drool over, straight from the bike’s launch at the Bahrain International Circuit.

It has been a curious thing to see the European press beginning to make hay of the news that MV Agusta has filed trademark renewals for the Elefant name.

Some publications have even gone on to suggest that the move could see the Varesini factory come to blows with its rival in Bologna: Ducati Motor Holdings.

These reports, while interesting to anyone who studies the flow of information in modern journalism, are a bit ridiculous in their reality…for several reasons.

It had promised to be a spectacular Silly Season in MotoGP this year. With all 22 rider contracts up for renewal at the end of this season, several long months of hard bargaining was expected, resulting in a major shakeup of the grid. Few seats were expected to be left untouched.

Yamaha dealt the first body blow to any major grid shakeup, moving quickly to extend Maverick Viñales’ contract through 2022, then moving rookie sensation Fabio Quartararo to race alongside him in the Monster Energy Yamaha team.

Valentino Rossi was promised full factory support from Yamaha in a satellite team if he decided to continue racing after 2020 instead of retiring.

Yamaha’s hand had been forced by Ducati. The Italian factory had made an aggressive play for both Viñales and Quartararo, and Yamaha had brought the decision on their future plans forward to early January.

Yamaha decided to go with youth over experience, and Ducati was left empty-handed.

It is here. It is finally here. The Ducati Superleggera V4 is finally official and well-worth the hype.

It turns out too that the leaked information we had on this “Super light” motorcycle was true, with the Ducati Superleggera V4 tipping the scales at 159kg when dry…and 152kg when the Akrapovic exhaust is installed.

Ducati isn’t disclosing what that means for curb weights, but if the Panigale V4 R is any comparison, it should be close to 380 lbs when topped off with gas and ready to rip on the race track.

Considering that the accompanying exhaust bumps power to over 230hp (172 kW), this gives the Superleggera V4 the best power-to-weight ratio from any production street bike ever created.

It only took a few hours since our last post on the Ducati Superleggera V4 for more photos and a video of the machine to leak online, which is just fine by us since we’re eager to see this incredible machine from Borgo Panigale.

The new photos and video (and the screen grabs from other videos) surely are products of Ducati’s microsite for the “Project 1708” machine, and they give us a larger glimpse on what to expect Thursday morning.

UPDATE: The Ducati Superleggera V4 has officially debuted.

While there are still roughly 18hrs left (at the time of this writing) until the Ducati Superleggera V4 officially debuts, photos of this $100,000 superbike are already leaking onto social media.

The treasure trove of images are likely coming from would-be buyers who have already seen the bike in person and have had access to its special website, where videos and information have been trickling out.

The fact that this is occurring should surprise no one, but of course these early images already have our mouths watering for the real thing.

An email just popped into our inbox giving us a hint at when we will see the Ducati Superleggera V4 superbike. The “Project 1708” machine has been teased a little bit by the Borgo Panigale, but the real news has been the slow leak of information about this exciting new motorcycle.

Built around the 998cc Desemosedici Stradale R engine found in the Panigale V4 R, the Superleggera V4 has carbon fiber frame, swingarm, bodywork, and wheels. This has allowed the Italians to cut 40 lbs from the the already very light Ducati Panigale V4 R, with the Ducati Superleggera V4 tipping the scales at a claimed 152 kg / 335 lbs (dry).

All of this is just “leaked” information about the extra-exclusive superbike from Ducati, but the Italians will officially be showing us the “Project 1708” bike on Thursday, February 6th  – at 8am PST (5pm CET).

On Thursday, Ducati presented its 2020 MotoGP team at a spectacular location: the Palazzo Re Enzo in the heart of Bologna’s main Piazzo Maggiore square.

Before the launch was live-streamed to the public, the main protagonists spoke to the media to lay out Ducati’s plans for the 2020 MotoGP season. And though nothing inside the team is changing, and factories always attempt to keep their cards close to their chest, they always manage to let one or two things slip, whether inadvertently or not.

Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali kicked off the press conference with a justification of why Ducati goes racing. The crux of his argument was that disruptive technologies and a rapidly changing political environment made it imperative for companies to be as independent as possible. That meant being able to rely on their own knowledge, and not having it taken away by outside factors.

“To be economically independent, we at Ducati absolutely think that investment in research in development is crucial,” Domenicali told us.

“And we at Ducati consider racing as the most advanced part of our research and development. And when we put together all the effort for racing, for production bike research and development and all the tooling to make and produce new bikes for racing and production we are above 10% of our total company turnover.”

An unveiling we expected at the EICMA show last year, Ducati has chosen the new year to unveil the updates coming to its Scrambler 1100 lineup, which now come with a “Pro” moniker.

Late last year, there was much speculation regarding what the tipped” Pro” name would entail exactly, and today we learn that it is a modest upgrade to the Scrambler 1100 line, with mostly aesthetic changes being the name of the game.

After the press conference part of Ducati’s 2020 MotoGP launch, we got a chance to ask Ducati Corse boss Gigi Dall’Igna a few more questions about the Italian factory’s plans for the coming season.

Dall’Igna expanded on some of the things he had told the press conference, such as his priority for the Desmosedici GP20, and how he expected the new Michelin rear tire to affect the racing.

But Dall’Igna also answered some other questions as well. The Ducati Corse boss talked about why he wanted more power from the GP20, the support on offer for Johann Zarco, how he sees rider contracts, and Ducati’s thoughts on racing in Endurance.

He even fielded a question about Marc Márquez, and managed to answer it by not answering it.