I dunno…
I already had an unfortunate and discouraging experience with the 959/V2 engine’s plastic drive gear for the water pump (not the actual impeller). Ducati went to the plastic gear to save weight - big mistake I came to learn and I wasn’t the only one affected. Fresh out of the dealer with only 700 miles on the clock and just a couple of months out of warranty, Ducati NA balked at helping out with a completely disintegrated plastic drive gear.
I replaced it with a steel gear that the WorldSBK (SSP) teams use. The new drive gear wasn’t expensive but getting all the disintegrated bits out of the oil circuit was painful. Ducati finally relented and pitched in $500 on a $2400 bill.
Neumotorräder und Gebrauchtmotorräder, Werkstatt und Service. Motoreninstandsetzung, Kurbelwelleninstandsetzung, Kopfbearbeitungen, Abstimmungen, Prüfstandsläufe, Austauschmotoren überholt und getuned usw. - alles aus einer Hand.
www.ducati-kaemna.com
So, given Ducati’s weight loss of 20lbs, I’d be really curious to understand where and how they achieved that. That’s a big step. I don’t imagine all tgat weight savings happened just with the engine but I’d still be concerned about high-wear or high-stress engine components having gone to plastic.