Stoner was better, though.
He jumped on two factory bikes, and won in his first season with both.
His teammate in Ducati could barely finish his races, while he won races and the championship.
One shy of 40 poles in a career where he had about four meaningful seasons, racing with Aliens...
Imagine him if he had a mental coach, and a doppelganger who could do the pr stuff...
In 2007 when Stoner won the championship on the Ducati, Loris Capirossi scored four podiums, including one win. He did have 4 DNFs, while Stoner had one. But, there were riders with worse finishing records.
In 2008, Stoner challenged for the championship while Marco Melandri didn't score a single podium. However, Melandri did finish all races except two, the same number of races that Stoner finished. However, Melandri's results are quite bad, and there could be some crashes and remounts in there.
In 2009, Nicky Hayden finished all races except two, but only scored one podium while Casey Stoner had multiple wins from fewer starts.
In 2010, Nicky Hayden only scored one podium, and had three DNFs. But, overall was more consistent with a number of 4th place finishes.
In 2011 Stoner was gone to Honda, and Rossi and Hayden had one podium each - both 3rd places. Three DNFs for Rossi, and two for Hayden. Points-wise, nearly the same.
Stoner clearly had something special skill-wise that enabled him to ride those Ducatis better than other riders. But, I'm not sure it's fair to say that Stoner's team-mates could barely finish races. Maybe that might apply to Melandri, but I can't remember the reasons for his bad results.
