Bombshell!! Casey Stoner signs with Honda!

TP70 said:

If he did indeed feel a complete difference and I do believe he is qualified to assess the feel of a bike then there must be some reason for it.

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Mick D said:

I absolutely DO NOT buy into the "someone was ....... with my ....., making my pearl of a bike from practice/qually into a lump of coal on race day" theory. The "reason" behind Casey's assessment will never be known but the psychology behind it is patently obvious...

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Mick D said:

I absolutely DO NOT buy into the "someone was ....... with my ....., making my pearl of a bike from practice/qually into a lump of coal on race day" theory. The "reason" behind Casey's assessment will never be known but the psychology behind it is patently obvious...

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TP70 said:

Pretty full on response there Babel. A few sentences does not make a 3 page article but even if it did I still don't see the big fuss. Of course manufacturers assist the rider they want to win win. Why then is it so strange that a manufacture might hold back a rider that threatens their #1 rider who ever that maybe. Far be it for me to suggest what Stoner felt from his bike on race day compared to practice. If he did indeed feel a complete difference and I do believe he is qualified to assess the feel of a bike then there must be some reason for it. If it was not his team then it could only have been either michelin or honda. I am not entirely sure about the goings on in a pit 24 hours a day over the 3-4 days of a race weekend and who has access to the pit but I would not be surprised if Honda and Michelin engineers have access to a satellite bike and pit over the course of the weekend.

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To be honest I always thought it was Lucio who was messing with the set up and never have I thought it was Honda or Michelin. I have always agreed that Michelin gave him crap tyres and suspected that his tyres on race day were potential different to the tyres he practiced on but then back then every Michelin rider was handed their race tyres on race day with some of them getting special over night tyres.

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I still don't believe that Honda messed with his bike. I think it was Lucio but Casey does not want to directly point the finger at someone who helped him a lot to get to where he is. At the stage the interview he had was made he had no loyalty to Honda as he had ridden on their bike for a grand total of 1 year in his many years of racing.

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Glad we are back to disagreeing, as it feels far more normal!

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Babelfish said:

You play it the way Stoner did; Suggesting the unthinkable. It's just a bit too much that a michelin or honda technician should be found sabotaging Stoners bike. As most others agree that was the words of an ambitious boy that didn't get it his way in the start. They didn't trust his impressions from the track, he couldn't come fully to terms with honda front suspension and michelin tires, and as these tires are hand made they will not always be 100% consistent.

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michaelm said:

All quite likely close to the truth, but context is everything.



On the other hand as you say, and leaving rossi entirely out of it, for the sake of argument compare him with say dani pedrosa (whom I also respect as a rider). Stoner had doubtless always been told dani was better than him, whilst perhaps in a position to know he did not have equipment as good. Having staked his career on a one year and likely terminating contract with ducati, on tyres from the hitherto second best manufacturer, to then be told by all and sundry that he was only doing well because of the bike and that the bike rode itself despite not doing so for the marque's (justifiably) previously favourite son loris capirossi might have galled men/boys far more urbane than he.

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chopperman said:

Remember capi and barros being told off / warned by the powers that be at ducati for beating their golden boy? I remember capi sticking his fingers up at the team as he crossed the finish line and barros hiding in his motor home stating he didn't give a .... about team orders. We really will never know if in fact casey was the only one who could ride the Duc.

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chopperman said:

Remember capi and barros being told off / warned by the powers that be at ducati for beating their golden boy? I remember capi sticking his fingers up at the team as he crossed the finish line and barros hiding in his motor home stating he didn't give a .... about team orders. We really will never know if in fact casey was the only one who could ride the Duc.

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michaelm said:

I think he became the golden boy by winning a lot of races and looking likely to win the world championship; there is no way he was favoured over loris from the get-go.



That said, I thought at the time and events subsequently have proved thay would have done better to stick with both loris and alex, with only nicky hayden this year now matching their performances, particularly since it would hardly have cost them anything to keep alex going.

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TP70 said:

Rog, This comment is so far below you I think someone has logged in as you and is an imposter. By far your worst comment ever.



By the time these things happened Stoner was fighting for a championship. By the time Pedrosa took out Hayden, Hayden was fighting for a championship and Honda said no team orders and we all cried foul. Rossi had his own personal test mule in Edwards for how many seasons. What do you think would have happened to Edwards if he had passed Rossi in a race whilst Rossi was fighting for a championship. Why is Rossi crying now about having another top rider on his team. Since time began race teams have put all their effort into their most likely championship contender yet you write as if Ducati and Stoner did something wrong. If I remember correctly the reason why Barros could even compete was because Ducati were unlike the other manufacturers and gave their satelite riders very near equal equipment. Rossi cries because Jorge gets his set up so a wall gets built and data not shared but hey it Rossi. MotoGP is a team sport and Barros obviously did not play a team game when he should have and look at him now.

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chopperman said:

All im saying is Ducati will issue team orders as they proved. Ducati did not take kindly to capi beating stoner . They also did not take kindly to barros beating the factory boys on a sat duc. I think thats when he lost his suspension tech guy. So to say Stoner is the only bloke who could ride the duc may not be as truthful as one might think. Lots of .... went on in the back ground is all im saying.

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Gaz said:

Povol,



Doohan is hardly my childhood hero - after all I am many years his elder.



Now, to your point - nope, Stoner will not be the equal of MD irrespective of whatever he does with his career and whilst my reasoning for that may be unfathomable to you, then that is not my issue nor concern. Suffice to say that in my 20+ years of watching and enjoying MGP, officiating at numerous motorcycling events (road, dirt and supermotard), running of ride and track days etc there is yet to be a rider whom I have seen from Oz at the highest level that can compete with MD.



Now, before you decide to launch into any diatribe (if you choose to do so) I suggest that you read many of my posts before judging or assuming that I am in fact showing any disrespect towards Stoner as I have been accused by some of being a bopper of the red variety because I defend him. Just that for me (and my true childhood hero was Hansford) Stoner is totally incomparable to MD in to many ways to mention that it is unjust to even try.



Now, as to your last point I suggest that you search back many years when it was a discussion that was had when that very type of question was asked (and some shouted down) which is how the career of VR (and others) would have developed had he suffered the injuries of days past. Thankfully we cannot know now or ever as we are in an era of increased safety for the riders such that we seem to have less of the type of injuries suffered in the MD era of bikes (let us not forget the career ending injuries of Puig et al as well).









Gaz

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michaelm said:

The comment by the ducati guy (not suppo or the racing team guys as I recall) concerning barros is very widely known and not something I endorse , but occurred off the cuff after a race in which barros made a maverick tyre choice against the recommendation of bridgestone and different to all the other bridgestone riders; he was a wily old fox and credit to him, but it is a stretch to suggest this indicates he was regularly capable of beating stoner, rossi or the other top riders, particularly since he doubtless had an inferior satellite bike in the first place as is the way of things, although as I implied he may have had more ability to sort a bike than subsequent incumbents and possibly stoner. (EDIT It was quite unnecessary to say it let alone attempt to enforce team orders against pramac d'antin, as it was, anyway; they had that well in hand by having d'antin run the team in the first place, whom I am sure was capable of finding purposes much more pleasant than paying a suspension tech with any money going round)



The capirossi thing is a new one on me, you will have to enlighten me. I recall him winning in japan in the rain, the race where stoner clinched the world championship, was never in contention to win, finished well down the field and rode nervously but managed to cover rossi which was all he needed to do; it had not previously occurred to me that loris needed to, was expected to or could have followed team orders in that race.



I did think that capirossi was pissed towards the end of the year at more or less being discarded by ducati , understandably so after so much loyal service, and would agree that the offer of a third bike for 2008 was a token one , but the alternative was to sack stoner since they had already signed melandri, which might perhaps have been hard to justify since he had just won the world championship for them even if you or others don't find him likeable.

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TP70 said:

Rog, This comment is so far below you I think someone has logged in as you and is an imposter. By far your worst comment ever.



By the time these things happened Stoner was fighting for a championship. By the time Pedrosa took out Hayden, Hayden was fighting for a championship and Honda said no team orders and we all cried foul. Rossi had his own personal test mule in Edwards for how many seasons. What do you think would have happened to Edwards if he had passed Rossi in a race whilst Rossi was fighting for a championship. Why is Rossi crying now about having another top rider on his team. Since time began race teams have put all their effort into their most likely championship contender yet you write as if Ducati and Stoner did something wrong. If I remember correctly the reason why Barros could even compete was because Ducati were unlike the other manufacturers and gave their satelite riders very near equal equipment. Rossi cries because Jorge gets his set up so a wall gets built and data not shared but hey it Rossi. MotoGP is a team sport and Barros obviously did not play a team game when he should have and look at him now.

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TP70 said:

Rog, This comment is so far below you I think someone has logged in as you and is an imposter. By far your worst comment ever.



By the time these things happened Stoner was fighting for a championship. MotoGP is a team sport and Barros obviously did not play a team game when he should have and look at him now.

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chopperman said:

Maybe i do have a slightly distorted memory of the capi incident and to the exact reasons behind his hand gesture to the ducati team. Think it was Motegi 07 , i would not be surprised if loris was told not to take points of stoner before the race only to win it with stoner in 6th making a mockery of any orders. It is fair to say that the Marlboro team is not a team i look fondly upon like HRC. But HRC have never issued team orders to basically throw a race to give points to a team-mate, let alone another team ordered to throw a race or we will stop leasing you the bikes or whatever the threat was. The race im talking about is Mugello 07 were Barros came third 0.056 sec's ahead of 4th place finisher stoner. I dont trust themand i think theres lots of .... beyond the scenes. Look how melandri was treated.

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