Stress in MotoGP

p4p1 · Nov 13, 2017

I posted this elsewhere as comment but I thought it might be worth mentioning here.

istening to Marquez talk about how hard the first few rounds were on him mentally really put into perspective how hard Stoners time at Ducati must've been. The difference between the two situations is Marquez has his factory, his team, his larger fan base and significant parts of the media on his side. Stoner meanwhile had the factory, the media and the majority of the fans against him. It's no wonder he ended up retiring as soon as he did and I dare say that Rossi or Marquez may not have had it in them to continue if they had the same path and problems Stoner had. Rossi was threatening to retire after a year and a half of being on the Duc and getting everything he asked for and had by his own account stopped pushing the limits while everyone blamed the bike, Stoner kept pushing while Ducati blamed him for their results and was winning right until the end while everyone including Ducati were blaming him.

I'm not convinced that if any of these other top riders including Rossi, Lorenzo, Marquez and Pedrosa etc had the same path and problems that Stoner they would still be racing in their 30s.

synn · Nov 13, 2017

Stoner went to Honda and won a championship with them after Ducati.
He retired because he didn’t have the grit to put up with the pressure.

Being an all time great is not just about being fast. The psychological aspects are important too. When you’re your own worst enemy, doesn’t matter if you have a great team or a sub par one.

As good as Stoner was, he was his own enemy a lot of time and made things more difficult for himself than they need to be.

p4p1 · Nov 13, 2017

synn said:
Stoner went to Honda and won a championship with them after Ducati.
He retired because he didn’t have the grit to put up with the pressure.

Being an all time great is not just about being fast. The psychological aspects are important too. When you’re your own worst enemy, doesn’t matter if you have a great team or a sub par one.

As good as Stoner was, he was his own enemy a lot of time and made things more difficult for himself than they need to be.

Remember how Rossi threatened to retire if he had to stay at Ducati, at which point Carmelo worked to get him back to Yamaha against the race teams wishes. Melandri went from promising talent to having to see a shrink and then refusing to go back to the GP recently all because of that bike and factory.

Edit let's add: 2006 mistake under pressure, 2007/2008 ultimatum of give me Bridgestones or I will retire, 2010 ultimatum of favour me over Lorenzo or I'll leave, 2012 ultimatum of if I have to stay at Ducati I'll retire, 2015 total meltdown. Bwing petulant and entitled doesn't mean you're mentally strong, most don't get their own way in doing so. If Rossi had to put up with what Stoner did, he would've been gone a long time ago and if given stoner second rate machinery through 125s, 250s and as he entered the premierclass he might not have ever won a championship.

michaelm · Nov 13, 2017

synn said:
Stoner went to Honda and won a championship with them after Ducati.
He retired because he didn’t have the grit to put up with the pressure.

Being an all time great is not just about being fast. The psychological aspects are important too. When you’re your own worst enemy, doesn’t matter if you have a great team or a sub par one.

As good as Stoner was, he was his own enemy a lot of time and made things more difficult for himself than they need to be.

Actually he made the very rational decision that he had nothing more to prove to fans such as you, and that there was no point persisting in a sport which ostensibly exists for the entertainment of fans when the fandom largely consisted of those of your ilk.

Please keep it coming, we haven't had an old-fashioned bopper/member of the Valeban on here to entertain us for a while.

synn · Nov 13, 2017

He’s still here winning races every year while Stoner doesn’t have the balls (or bowel control) to race anymore.

synn · Nov 13, 2017

Lol.

“Bopper”. “Valeban”.

You guys are so clever and utterly original!

synn · Nov 13, 2017

And it’s funny how I didn’t mention Rossi once (and even admitted how Stoner was very good) and yet the mindless drones automatically gravitated towards Rossi bashing.

This forum is hilarious. I will enjoy making some of you squirm.

michaelm · Nov 13, 2017

synn said:
Lol.

“Bopper”. “Valeban”.

You guys are so clever and utterly original!

Valeban is unoriginal, as I suspect are you in terms of your advent on this forum.

We may well have invented the term bopper on this very forum as it happens, rather a long time ago.

Whoever you are, what is obvious is that there are a number of posters on this forum with different opinions than are prevalent on many other forums. I don't think many of us are under any illusion that our opinions are other than opinions. I am not sure the same can be said for you and many of your fellow travellers.

p4p1 · Nov 13, 2017

synn said:
He’s still here winning races every year while Stoner doesn’t have the balls (or bowel control) to race anymore.

So if the CEO of DORNA had not made sure Rossi was on the Yamaha for 2013 but he stayed at Ducati do you think that he would've stuck to his word and retired? Do you think he ever would've actually won a race on the Ducati?

Like I said it's easy to give Stoner .... when he was the whipping boy for everyone and had the hardest path of all the recent world champions to his titles despite showing clear almost unparalleled talent. It's also much more draining I'm sure for the guys who can't actually go home after a race or even during the summer break.

michaelm · Nov 13, 2017

synn said:
He’s still here winning races every year while Stoner doesn’t have the balls (or bowel control) to race anymore.

Read his biography. A major contributor to his decision was Simoncelli's death, and the fact that there was such a brief pause before a return to the usual backbiting about non-preferred riders.

Valentino Rossi won many more titles than Stoner did, and all credit to him for winning every single one of them, but I somehow doubt you have won 2 world titles yourself.

synn · Nov 13, 2017

And neither have you, so why are you preaching to me?

Read Rossi’s bio while you’re at it too. See how Graziano has to struggle for years to get his kid a decent ride. How Valentino raced his way up through the nationals, with many factors against him until he could get a world championship ride. Or how he had to unlearn and relearn riding when he moved to 250s. And so on.

You guys make it seem like he was born one day and the next day someone put him on top of Doohan’s NSR500.

Oh, and Rossi was way closer to SIC58 than Stoner ever was. Hell, they collided on that fateful day. I sincerely doubt that affected Stoner any more than it did Rossi.

Maybe the latter should have put on a crybaby diva act as well and went fishing?

#22 · Nov 13, 2017

p4p1 said:
Remember how Rossi threatened to retire if he had to stay at Ducati, at which point Carmelo worked to get him back to Yamaha against the race teams wishes. Melandri went from promising talent to having to see a shrink and then refusing to go back to the GP recently all because of that bike and factory.

Edit let's add: 2006 mistake under pressure, 2007/2008 ultimatum of give me Bridgestones or I will retire, 2010 ultimatum of favour me over Lorenzo or I'll leave, 2012 ultimatum of if I have to stay at Ducati I'll retire, 2015 total meltdown. Bwing petulant and entitled doesn't mean you're mentally strong, most don't get their own way in doing so. If Rossi had to put up with what Stoner did, he would've been gone a long time ago and if given stoner second rate machinery through 125s, 250s and as he entered the premierclass he might not have ever won a championship.

Let's also add:

Rossi got a very privileged upbringing compared to Stoner. Son of a former GP racer and pretty much wanted for nothing as a kid. Reading his biography gave me the impression he was very spoiled and didn't apply himself until he decided he fancied racing bikes.

Stoner on the other hand, wanted to be a bike racer all his life. He and his family relocated from sunny and warm Australia to living in a caravan eating beans on toast in cold and wet Cheshire. The stress alone of moving to a new country is unfathomable to anyone who;s never done it, let alone if you family mortgaged everything they had on the gamble you were going to make it. That sort of stress at such a young age is the reason Stoner got fed up and retired early, especially when he discovered the Carmelo Clause in MotoGP.

synn · Nov 13, 2017

You must have read a very different biography than the one I did because that is not what I read.

The only privilege he got was that his dad was a former racer. He wanted to race since he was a kid too, the only thing was he couldn’t choose between bikes and karting. Graziano told him flat out that they didn’t have the money for karting. So bikes it was.

He started on a used bike that had seen much better days. All of this is in the book if you actually read it.

#22 · Nov 13, 2017

I did read it, and you clearly skipped through the parts where he was acting out and getting into trouble with the local law for things like street racing and generally being a .........

Keep that head buried in the sand.

synn · Nov 13, 2017

Yeah, everyone should be a moody introvert like bucktooth. Shame on them for actually having some fun in their younger days!

#22 · Nov 13, 2017

What makes you think Stoner didn't have fun? Again in your blindness you miss the point.

What did you think of Lorenzo's post race "Lorenzoland" celebrations in his early MotoGP days by the way?

p4p1 · Nov 13, 2017

synn said:
Yeah, everyone should be a moody introvert like bucktooth. Shame on them for actually having some fun in their younger days!

It must eat you up that Stoner emarressed your boy in the 6 years they were both on factory bikes.

synn · Nov 13, 2017

I don’t have a “a boy”.

It must eat you up that Bucktooth can’t ride anymore without adult diapers because everyone is mean to him and that makes him poop himself.

AntG · Nov 13, 2017

To be fair to Stoner he's having his fun now, he gets to pick and choose what he does.

I'm not surprised he got fed up with GP though as I was approaching the end of my tether with it around then too.

p4p1 · Nov 13, 2017

synn said:
I don’t have a “a boy”.

It must eat you up that Bucktooth can’t ride anymore without adult diapers because everyone is mean to him and that makes him poop himself.

Lol remember Rossi's meltdown because he thought Marquez was mean to him? Imagine how he would feel if fans spat on him for winning or the media went to his house to attack him for winning.

Funnily enough last time both Rossi and Stoner were on the same track Stoner jumped on a Ducati and went faster than Rossi on his Yamaha even though he hadn't ridden in a couple of years. It doesn't eat me up that Stoner isn't racing anymore, he accomplished what people thought he couldn't, he made Rossi look not only mortal but totally inferior and in the end he won. His success meant that in the end DORNA bought in a control tyre that ended Rossi's equipment advantages and the moment they went so did Rossi's dominance.

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