The Ducati Diavel V4 and a History of Principled Design

[Hugh Janus]

Julien Clément’s design sketch for the 2023 Ducati Diavel V4. Note how the exhaust and radiator shrouds differ from the final version. (Ducati/)

When Ducati introduced the original Diavel in 2011, it was arguably the biggest departure from its racing roots in the modern era. At the time, Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali said 60 percent of the emphasis was on design and 40 percent on engineering—the opposite of a superbike. From the beginning, the Diavel defied conventionality and surpassed expectations.

Like an elite athlete who goes to Milan Fashion Week in couture and shows up the fashionistas, the Diavel showed the function-follows-form cruiser world what style looks like when it’s draped in racing glory. To sportbike riders amazed by its performance prowess, Ducati’s attitude was one of impish Rossi-esque false modesty: “ees nothing…” As if it didn’t know that a cruiser wasn’t supposed to perform like a superbike.

The 2023 Ducati Diavel V4. (Ducati/)

Twelve years later, in its third generation and now featuring an aluminum frame and the V-4 Granturismo engine, which uses conventional valve springs, the Diavel V4 still surprises. At the same time, despite massive technical differentiation from the original, the Diavel exemplifies Ducati’s constancy. Namely, its constancy of design. For that, it is in debt to a host of luminaries past and present, man and machine.

“The Diavel is a big Monster,” says Ducati Design Director Andrea Ferraresi. “From a design point of view, our roots are the 916 for a sportbike and the Monster for a naked. From there, the story starts.”

Ferraresi began his work at Ducati 23 years ago, and for the last 18 has held his current position as head of design. For a brand whose vision is “to be the most desirable motorcycle brand,” the importance of Ferraresi’s role over the past two decades can hardly be overstated.

Prior to the lightning rod that was the 916, Ducati was regarded in the enthusiast world for its successful racing motorcycles. The Desmoquattro-powered 851 and 888, the 916′s predecessors, were beautiful in their purposeful simplicity, but they had little impact on the world beyond the racetrack. The 916 changed everything. It set a new standard of beauty that coincided with a period of technical achievement that changed the world’s perception of Ducati. From a builder of niche, maintenance-intensive racebikes to cultural phenomenon, Ducati has become a near-household name synonymous with Italian design and ultimate performance.

Andrea Ferraresi at a design event in Manhattan, February 2023. (Ducati/)

“The 916 was a turning point in the design history of the superbikes,” Ferraresi says. “For Massimo Tamburini, il maestro, it was clear that proportions were the basis of stunning design. And proportion-wise, the 916 was three steps ahead of every bike on the market at the time. The Monster’s greatness was—and still is—in being both unconventional and essential. To have fun riding a bike, you only need two wheels, an engine, a tank, a seat, and a handlebar. Nothing else. That’s the Monster.”

If Tamburini and the 916 and Miguel Galluzzi and the Monster can be credited for establishing Ducati’s current identity, then Domenicali and Ferraresi can be credited for preserving it and moving it into the future.

In 2004, Domenicali moved from Ducati Corse to become head of product development. At virtually the same time, Ferraresi was hired as design coordinator and then design director. Their first project together was to develop the 1098 superbike. As the successor to the 999, Pierre Terblanche’s ambitious reinvention of the superbike, the 1098 had to become the follow-up to the 916 that the 999 never was.

“The 999 has been a polarizing bike,” Ferraresi says. “Extremely successful on the track, but controversial and unconventional from a design point of view.”

The 999 was a singular achievement in its own way, but often maligned because it didn’t look like a Ducati—which is to say, it didn’t look like what anyone thought “the next 916″ should look like. Fans wanted another album of A sides; the 999 was a concept album.

“If you have such a strong heritage, a long history, and deep roots in the racing field, you are not forced to surprise at every step when you design a new superbike,” Ferraresi says. “You need to reassure your passionate fans. A new bike must not make the previous one look old, it must simply be the next one.”

The 1098 was Ferraresi and Domenicali’s first of many projects together. Here a computer model shows a near-final version. (Ducati/)

“Ducati went back where it had to be on the superbike design field,” he says. “We decided that the design language of the 916 had to be our guide: the double horizontal headlight, the slim tail, the double undertail silencers, the single-sided swingarm, the sculptural tank. Thanks to great designers such as Gianandrea Fabbro, Bart Janssen Groesbeek, and Damien Basset, we not only gave birth to the 1098, Hypermotard, and Streetfighter, we created a modern design studio and a design development process that we still follow today.”

It may seem an obvious recourse after the chilly reception of the 999, but in the process of developing the 1098 and identifying the elements that defined Ducati Red Desire, Domenicali and Ferraresi ensured that bikes as far removed—in time and purpose—from the 916 and the Monster as the new Diavel V4 are immediately accepted for their Ducati-ness.

Ferraresi says: “We decided that our heritage had to be our pole star in terms of product pillars: the racing roots, the design, the color red, a V-configured engine, the frames.… Of course, these pillars were already there, but we decided to consider them as an unquestionable reference. And Claudio [Domenicali] fixed the golden rules, the ‘Reduce to the Max’ concept: removing everything unnecessary to reach the top.”

By echoing Ing. Fabio Taglioni, Ducati’s OG (Original Genius), whose motto was “Simplicity, carried to its ultimate extreme,” Domenicali reaffirms Ducati’s historic values and implicitly acknowledges that the brand stands on the shoulders of giants, that it need only look internally to divine its path ahead.

The 2023 Diavel V4 uses the V-4 Granturismo engine from the Multistrada V4. The prominent air intake references previous Diavel models while the radiator shroud and more aggressive tank veer even further from the cruiser formula. (Ducati/)

The “Reduce to the Max” philosophy stipulates that a Ducati must be “authentic, essential, compact, recognizable, sporty, and sensual” (that is, it must inspire tactile appreciation). In concrete terms—and here’s where the debts to the 916 and Monster are so obvious—designs must possess the following distinctive traits: visual mass on the front, a slim and agile tail, a compact front view, a sculptural tank, and a sinuous top view.

Every motorcycle in Ducati’s lineup shares these attributes. It explains why the local Ducati dealer has trouble keeping its floor models’ fuel tanks free of fingerprint smudges, and why the bird’s-eye view of a Ducati always inspires lazy writers to compare it to famous Italian actresses’ silhouettes.

Rather than rely on the singular vision of a designer—one who, for instance, may leave when the parent company sells up (e.g., Tamburini and Cagiva), or one whose vision is too ahead of customer taste (Terblanche)—today, Ducati relies on a team of six designers overseen by Ferraresi in the Centro Stile Ducati.

From the outside, it seems that there are inherent risks to enshrining its design philosophy and using a team of designers who are never allowed to veer too far off script. For one, there’s the danger that designs could become overly prescribed.

Ferraresi admits that the outgoing Diavel looked too predictable. “The second generation of the Diavel was beautiful but in some ways it was too clean and neat, while the first generation was wow! super strong and surprising.”

The so-called “sinuous top view,” one of the distinctive shapes that give Ducatis “a strong family resemblance” to their predecessors. (Ducati/)

Ultimately, communicating directly with its customers—an industry-wide tactic, these days—keeps the designers on the right track. “We did some focus groups and market research to understand the right way to reinvent the concept of the Diavel,” Ferraresi says. “They wanted us to push on design. The main target for this model was to surprise again. That’s why we have this type of taillight, this type of exhaust, headlight, and air intakes.”

The second potential danger of relying on a prescriptive design philosophy is that it could stifle the creative vision of the design team and prevent the growth of the next Tamburini or Galluzzi. Here, Ferraresi expresses little concern. In Ducati fashion, competition is the means by which human excellence is achieved.

Elements such as the unique taillights, which incorporate braking and turn signals within the array, are intended to surprise. (Ducati/)

Designers compete in rounds—”like a tennis tournament” Ferraresi says—proposing their sketches to “win” the job as designer of a new model. In the case of the Diavel V4, Julien Clément, who previously designed the Scrambler, the SuperSport, and the Panigale V4, penned the final design. Clément has since moved on to become the lead designer at the revitalized Norton Motorcycles, but his legacy at Ducati is cemented. Indeed, a list of Centro Stile Ducati’s former designers reads like a who’s who in the motorcycle design field. Iron sharpens iron, as it were.

While Clément’s design is clearly linked to its predecessors, the Diavel V4 looks more like a “big Monster” than ever. At the same time, there are surprises aplenty: the exhaust, like a pair of double-barrel shotguns, demonstrates the mechanical nature of the machine, while the taillights’ “matrix of punctiform LEDs” conveys the digital aspect of the modern Ducati.

The Diavel V4 in black. Even with a large catalytic converter, the quad-tip exhaust is eye-catching. (Ducati/)

One look at the red tank, a sweep of the hand across the minimalist tailsection, and a glance at the 90-degree engine is all it takes to know, to feel, that here is a Ducati. The Diavel is far from a performance-first superbike or a stripped-down Monster, but its own identity is in their debt. And in many ways, it’s equally in debt to the 1098, which helped delineate a path forward.

Ferraresi says: “I remember everything about the 1098 project: the final sketch presentation, the clay modeling, the design freeze, and the final presentation on the terrace where the sun nearly melted the clay.… But above all, I remember the first pre production bike: Claudio and I staring at it and him saying: ‘It’s our first bike…’”

As the saying goes, they haven’t looked back since—except, of course, that’s exactly what they’ve done.

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[Buckster]

Gay.