998RS, 998 F 01 and 998 F 02, wots the difference?
 

I just saw the official superbike world championship review 2002 on dvd. Time well spent while waiting for spring :)

Great stuff, really! The final race between Troy Bayliss and Colin Edwards is a sensational thriller. You probably know the outcome already but still the dvd is quite exciting...

I noticed that there were three types of Ducatis racing; the 998RS, the 998 F 01 and the 998 F 02.

Are these three bikes identical or are there technical differences between them?

Just variances in power output and minor spec changes. The RS is the 'customer' bike, and F01 is a 2001 'factory' spec and F02 is a 2002 'Factory' spec. The later the model, the more power and tweaks it has.

Also, the RS (customer spec) bikes are usually the same as the previous year's F (factory) bikes, so a 2002 998 RS would be equivalent to a 2001 998 F01.