Motorcycle Forums

from a purely business perspective?

Ducati had their best year ever in terms of sales for 2012, and the panigale was 17% of those sales. Is there some other business perspective I haven't heard about?

The steel trellis had reached its limits in 2008, and Ducati Corse put their trust in an innovative engineer who had the balls to try something different. This is a very Italian thing to do. They then had limited resources to fully explore its potential, and were hobbled by having to use whatever tyres Bridgestone decided were best for the entire MotoGP field. Stoner's opinion, which has got to be worth something since he managed to win on the thing, was that it was a great bike but the setup window was too narrow and often a moving target.

The worst thing Ducati could do from a business perspective is abandon their philosophy and revert to the tried and true formula of the japanese. Who the hell would want to buy an aluminium spar inline 4 Ducati? Their bikes are the most engaging things i've ever ridden and it would be senseless to move away from their heritage just to perform better in prototype racing. I hope they don't.