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Casey Stoner is at Eicma to run the Champions Charity Race, an event more unique than rare taking into account the caliber of the rider, but also his nature.
The Australian star, beloved by Ducatisti, does not like to be in the spotlight, and even less to be involved in events with the media. Interceding in favor of his participation was Adriana, his wife. Stoner first blitzed Lombardore to train on a Beta 350, two-stroke, then flew to Andorra to visit his fraternal friend Chaz Davies, with whom he shared his early racing days, then met up with his former team manager and mentor Livio Suppo, in Turin, with whom he went to a pizzeria. Casey is like that, pure and tough, and it was a pleasure to see and greet him again, with the subtle sadness of having enjoyed his exploits for too short a time.
But now he is happy, although no longer as interested in MotoGP as he once was, because he does not like the evolution of our sport. It is worth remembering that it was Nolan who brought him to Italy and adding that Casey does not consider the Italian helmet factory as a sponsor, but as his extended family. Not many people know that Stoner has turned down many offers from rival brands. And he has never discussed his sponsorship, merely putting his signature on contracts. Hearing him speak you can tell that Stoner's Nolan helmet is indeed 'his' helmet. And from a rider who turned down a blank check from Honda HRC not to retire, we didn't expect anything different. (p.s.).
"I've always had such an incredible relationship with Nolan, for so many years. They gave me something to start racing when nobody else did."
What are the most important qualities in a helmet for a professional rider?
"It's a little bit of everything, with most sports there is always a compromise. But something we found with Nolan was that we fixed all the compromises. In the early years when I was first with them, 2001 to three, we had some problems which we needed to fix, in a couple of years we went from a low-grade helmet to a very good helmet. Even compared to the other manufacturers, we were able to overcome every small issue very quickly. This is what I really appreciated about Nolan, it was we didn't just stay with what we had. They continually wanted to work. So, of course, we need first and foremost, safety, and everybody thinks the helmet is a helmet, but it is really not, there are some helmets that I've seen people crash and hit their heads every time they are unconscious or with issues. I've had some big crashes. I've seen some other Nolan riders have had some big crashes. Never a problem with any sort of injuries in the head which is incredible. So having faith in safety is the first one and then you don't have to worry about the possibility of these things happening. But then there's the air vents which everybody thinks is just an air vent but if the air is coming too quickly inside of the the face part of the helmet, then you dry your eyes out and when you're doing 350 kilometers an hour and you sit up for the corner and the air comes in the helmet too quickly, you have a problem because you lose the vision. We had Nolan in 2005 and had more problems with our condensation for two races, but we were able to fix this issue very quickly and we never had this problem weather related ever again in the past."
You still follow the world championship, next week is the last race. One Ducati will win, it will be a battle between Bagnaia and Martin. Bagnaia won ten races like you did in 2007, but it is not certain he can win the title, in fact it is likely he will lose it. What do you think about racing nowadays, sprinting, qualifying that matters for both races. Do you think there is something wrong with that?
"I think it's something which is spread across racing in general, it's also happening in motocross where we are saying the 450 is too hard to ride and is too big and powerful. Motorsport is supposed to be the best riders on the most difficult platform to drive or ride and at the moment MotoGP is too easy. They don't have enough control over the bike. The engineers are making too big of a difference. And then they put the sprint race which reduces the amount of track time that they get to concentrate for the long race. We are not supposed to have a world championship with miniatures, it is supposed to be an endurance event. It's basically like trying to say Okay, we're going to have a marathon, now 10 laps is not a marathon, it's 43 kilometres. It's gruelling, very hard work. So we need to have stability, the world championship is supposed to be over a long distance race. You can't have people that are very good over a short period of time, they can run the soft tire. You have to think about race distance. Also, you don't get points for these sort of Sprint races because the points are supposed to come on Sunday when it is the main race. The main part of the championship, and like I said, it's very difficult to set a bike up. So that you can be focussed throughout the entire race. And at the moment we are putting such focus on one lap, it's very important to get through the Q2 from the very first practice. So this stops everybody from thinking about race setup, getting everything done for that. And then I think this is why we see on on Sunday that there's quite a big spread between the riders because not everybody's ready for the the race pace."
Besides, on Saturday you already get an idea of who will be the protagonist on Sunday.
"Yes I don't like this system, I don't like the winglets and I don't like all these controls, the start devices. All these gadgets are destroying racing. The turbulence that comes off the aerodynamics is a disaster. The costs have also gone up, not only in development but also every time you crash the bike, and we see a lot more of them now. The sprint and the urgency to do these lap times, but in general I think the MotoGP bike is now one of the easiest motorcycles to ride in the world."
From another point of view, these bikes have become very physical. Iannone demonstrated this by returning to MotoGP last week, a lot of it is concentrated in braking.
"When you go to the middle of the corner, to the exit, more or less everyone's the same, they all have similar electronics so the only way to make a difference is on the braking. Because of the ride height devices you arrive at the corner much faster and the margin for error is much smaller. This is why we see everyone on the limit all the time and if you make a mistake it is normally a big crash."
What do you expect from 2027 when there will be changes in the regulations?
"I think the changes are not enough. They are small changes that will make a small difference. I don't know why we went back to the 850 again because already they complained about 800s. The point is that when you have all these controls, why do you 1000cc? When you have all these controls you can't do anything with the power. I would like bikes that are difficult to ride, I want to see people using the clutch in the corner. I want to see these guys sliding, trying to find traction, trying to reduce the amount of wheelies. Like slow-motion videos, they used to look really amazing; now we watch the winglets flexing. We saw what happened with Bezzecchi and Vinales in Phillip Island, the turbulent air, the overheating of the brakes and the front tyres, this is not racing. What I'm saying is why did they go to 850, because they don't need all the horsepower. If they gave this power in the hands of the riders and they need to control it, it would be much more fun."
Do you have the curiosity to try a MotoGP bike? Or would you rather get on a 500 two-stroke?
"Zero! But much curiosity for the old 500 2-strokes. I had the opportunity last year to ride Kenny Roberts JR's bike, in such a short space you can feel what this bike is capable of. The current generation of riders including myself, we have no idea how amazing the 500s were and how difficult they were to ride."
How are you doing physically, last time in Portimao you were not 100 percent, but now you ride a 350 two-stroke, why two-stroke?
"Physically I am still struggling a lot, although not like two years ago. I'mmaking improvements every month but I'm not close to 100 percent, especially in the endurance, especially in my arms, which I cannots eem to improve. For me riding a two-stroke is where everything started for me, it's an art to ride it, to tune it. Four-strokes are easier to ride, you don't have to worry about the rear brake, the engine brake is there to help you. With two-strokes you have to be on the clutch to control the slide, the power curve is different and there are details that are different. There's something about riding a two-stroke that makes you realize why you enjoy motorcycles, whereas with the four-stroke I don't get that sensation."
Honda is having a lot of difficulties at the moment, they seem lost. What do you think about this situation and Marc's decision last year to go on a Ducati. Did you expect him to be so competitive?
"I expected Marc to be fast. If you didn't think he would be fast, then I don't think you're too intelligent. He's a super talented rider and I think he can do anything on any bike. I also think that we are unable to see Marc's real talent, if we took away all these things I think you would find a different result. With Honda, I saw the decision from Marc and I understand why he did it, Honda have been there a lot for him but they are really struggling right nows. All the Japanese manufacturers are, the rules don't seem to have clear defined lines, in the last years when the rules were supposed to be set but conveniently many things changed. The Japanese are very good at refining things and getting things working really well, but they need to know a guideline and at the moment the rules just seem to be like floating. The Europeans and the Italians in particular, are very good to make changes quickly, they're very creative, So the Japanese who are good to refine everything, are a little bit behind in bringing updates or improvements. I'd like to see the rules stay in place for a period of time so that they don't have to adjust them to suit the situation."
