As the Ducati/Bautista steamroller goes on in WorldSBK, the bosses of Kawasaki and Yamaha share their thoughts on how the rules are preventing them from making any real fightback:
Ducati and Bautista have won all of the 12 races held so far this year bar one, and the Spaniard has a comfortable lead of 69 points in the riders' standings over Yamaha's Toprak Razgatlioglu.
Meanwhile, more modern machines like the Ducati V4 R Panigale, which have been developed purely for racing, have a clear advantage. "Ducati builds race bikes for the street, and the Japanese manufacturers build street bikes that they race on track. They are different concepts."Yamaha is in a similar position to Kawasaki with its aging R1 platform, which like the ZX-10RR uses an inline-four engine as opposed to the MotoGP-derived V4 unit favoured by Ducati.
"It’s not about Ducati being smarter than the other manufacturers," Denning told Motorsport-Total.com."You can’t really compare them. They are building bikes for 50,000 euros and we are building them for 20,000. When you look at it that way, it’s amazing how small the difference is. "In the past, more modifications were allowed," he said."But if you limit these modifications, you limit the competitiveness of certain bikes.
"The market isn’t demanding new superbikes," said Roda."The development costs are too high. You can’t develop a new motorcycle to sell 500 units [a year] - you need to sell 10,000 or 20,000."
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