In short, the ducati design sucked - Mainly because of the desmo system (it has a valve lifter, rather than relying on springs as do other engines) and the fact that they use huge inlets - their valve design isnt what you'd expect to use in an engine.
While the result is a great bike and all that, it just couldnt cut it low down power wise with the factory bikes - in particular honda with their RC45 and later inline-4s (which had to be restricted to make an even playing field). While the other factories were restricted to 750cc, ducati moved from 888 to 916, 996, 998 and 999 (the last ones came out to counter the restriced 1kcc machines).
I'm also told that the desmo engine in the 999 is at the end of its design cycle - that is, unless they go up in capacity, they cant get any more power out it without risking it blowing up heaps - which is what happened last year with people paying heaps of cash for bikes that wouldnt even run 500km.
The best way of doing the comparison is to look at the SS racing where ducati need a 748cc machine to be competitive with a 600cc inline machine.
Having said all that - its important to remember that the desmo system, like yamaha's 5 valve cylinders may not be the most optimum way of tuning a machine, its what makes the bikes unique.
The other thing thats happened now is a lot of the cost has been removed from SBK because of new regulations. This allows teams to spend more money on tuning (actually fettling - they are only allowed to change the engine design twice per year) which I think is what we can see with yamaha last weekend suddenly being competitive. I know suzuki pumped in a huge budget trying to secure more brand advertising (which is what the sport is about) because of their lack of performance in motogp.
I found it interesting that suzuki having realised they had a good bike this year, went for a consistent rider (which is a good team strategy, albiet not so entertaining from my view). Thing is, suzi and co are all on the start of a new design cycle where as ducati are at the end of an old one.
I think the benefit of it this year is that we are seeing the ducati riders having to actually ride, rather than relying on the bike to carry them thru and it brings out their charisma a lot more. For example you can tell when Toseland is suffering from the 999s fabled chassis chatter problem as he looks so depressed, yet when thats sorted he can barely contain himself. That makes the riding worth watching for me at least, because part of what I look at is the riders body language and style during the race (to be honest the bikes bore me most of the time).
Thats my two cents anyhow. I suspect others have different views.
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