Today is a tough day for Honda fans. Today marks ten years since Honda's last WSBK win. The late Nicky Hayden won race two at Sepang on May 15, 2016. Honda has not won a World Superbike race since that day. Not one.

What has happened since then? Frankly, not much. There have been new Honda bikes, updates and regime changes for the factory Honda WSBK team. They have hired a short-bus load of riders to race the CBR1000RR and tried any number of new team managers, but the fact is they are out-gunned by Ducati, by BMW and now even by Bimota.

Saying that the old man (Mr. Honda) is spinning in his grave over this embarrassment is as poignant as it is irreverent. Mr. Honda has been dead for almost 35 years and, in that time, some kind of racing malaise has metastasized inside both Honda and HRC which now makes them accept defeat as just another ordinary day at the track. Sure, if the old man saw a results sheet from a modern WSBK race and his bikes were this uncompetitive, he would explode in a face-slapping, wrench-throwing, everybody-responsible-gets-fired tantrum. But the fact is this malaise is almost company-wide and if everyone at Honda who signed off on pushing a boat anchor to the start line were fired it would be of little use, because there are scores of employees in line who don't want to upset their boss and will sign off on what they know in their heart isn't going to be competitive.

Want more proof the malaise is real? Today Honda reported its first operating loss ever. The company lost $2 billion.