Is Kawasaki planning a ‘small-scale’ superbike?

The manager of Kawasaki’s factory world superbike squad has hinted the Japanese company may adopt a similar strategy to Ducati in producing a ‘homologation’ special with a mandate to dominate the production series.

In an interview on Radio Marca in Spain, Guim Roda was responding to questions about Kawasaki’s uphill battle to retain the No. 1 plate in the WorldSBK title in the face of a dominant start to the 2019 season by rookie Alvaro Bautista and Ducati’s all-new Panigale V4 R -- the company’s most powerful production machine ever.

After four of 13 rounds, Bautista sits on a maximum 236pts ahead of Kawasaki’s four-time defending champion Jonathan Rea (183) on the ZX-10RR. Round five will be held at Imola from May 10-12.

Related: Bautista sets new WorldSBK record

When asked about some solutions to allow Kawasaki to go toe-to-toe with Ducati, Roda was quoted as saying: “We’ll have to see, for 2020, future models and future ways to plan the production of our bikes, to which extent can we work with the same philosophy as Ducati, in terms of making small-scale production models.

“Two years ago, we already had the [ZX-10] RR. We’ll have to see if something can be done."

Pressed further on the issue, he said: “Right now, what has been spoken about internally is our determination to never give up and to give Jonny a product that would allow him to face up to Bautista. We need to adapt the product to the requirements needed to win a world championship”.

Kawasaki’s ZX-10RR was released as an homologation special (a minimum 500-unit production) at the 2016 Cologne motorcycle show, boasting lighter forged aluminium wheels as well as various engine tweaks.

That model, thanks to a rampant Rea, won the 2017 and 2018 WorldSBK titles, but Ducati has now trumped all and sundry with the Panigale V4 R, which produces a claimed 221hp at 15,250rpm -- a whopping 2250rpm higher rpm than the 1103cc version of the V4 found in the Panigale V4 and Panigale V4 S.

How will Kawasaki respond to Ducati? Of course, the 2019 WorldSBK title still isn't over and it hasn’t given up hope of reclaiming the silverware, but something significant is going to happen on the model front to match Ducati on a consistent basis. And the answer could come at the EICMA motorcycle show in Milan in November 2019.