Ducati's triumph in a MotoGP world championship usually dominated by Japanese giants is a poetic victory for small Italian businesses, according to Gabriele Del Torchio, managing director of the Bologna-based motorcycle maker.
Del Torchio, who saw Ducati's Australian star Casey Stoner clinch the world championship in Japan on Sunday, was keen to stress that all of the Italian company was about as big as a Honda throttle-grip factory.
"This was a victory of David against Goliath," he said in an interview with Ansa, noting that last year Ducati sold a total of 32,000 bikes while Honda's global sales were around ten million.
Despite the difference in size, Ducati humbled the Japanese opposition at Motegi on Sunday. Stoner became champion with three races to spare, the team itself clinched the manufacturer's title and Stoner's team-mate Loris Capirossi put the icing on the cake by winning at Honda's own circuit.
"This is the proof that Italian intelligence and technology, if well managed and accompanied by passion, can make incredible results possible," he continued.
Ducati has laid its hands on the MotoGP crowns in only its fifth year in the top flight of motorcycling. It is the first Italian team to produce a world champion for 34 years.
The result is partly thanks to the undoubted skills of the 21-year-old wonderboy Stoner. But it is also due to cutting edge technology and strategic choices made by Ducati several years ago.
The straight-line speed of Ducati's GP6 bike, which has been in great evidence so far this season, is the result of a 2002 decision to concentrate on power even at the expense of some handling.
But Del Torchio, who took over at Ducati in May this year, was keen to emphasise that the two world titles in 2007 were far more than the just rewards for past endeavours.
"What we're achieving now is not the epilogue of the story but the start of a new one," he said.
Asked where he intended to go from here, Del Torchio said: "It's hard to think of objectives that are any more ambitious. We'll work to carry on like this, to win, to grow. That's what's in the strategic plan for the coming years".
Ducati's success on the track has been a major boon to the company, which only two years ago was struggling. The company expects that this year it should post its first net profit since 2003.
The upswing for business is no more apparent than in Japan, home of global motorcycle behemoths Honda and Yamaha.
Ducati's marketing department for Japan already reckons sales in that country will close this year 10% higher than last on the back of the racing team's success.
