| I think that you will find that Ducati won BSB then? A series that had the works team from Honda/Michelin in it. So perhaps the statement that they are nowhere in racing is not quite true. They are in Moto GP ahead of 2 Japanese factories.
The brand is not in decline, the brand perhaps has lost a bit of bike direction, a brand that perhaps has been too focused on peripheral items, but in a declining market such as bike sales it could have been the smartest move to have put their eggs in another basket.
My view is that the biggest threat to the brand is BMW. Shock! They have an extremely well sorted dealer network, they have a range of bikes using common engines (giving profit) , they have brand loyalty, they just do not have the wow factor, or the cool factor, - but at some stage they are going to get that right probably when they enter MotoGP. |