Casey Stoner: "Half This S*** Needs To Go"
A
t the recent Goodwood
Festival of Speed, two-time
MotoGP World Champion Casey
Stoner aired a few views about
the direction of the sport in an
interview with The Race's Simon
Patterson.
Since retiring in 2012, Stoner
has spent much of that time bat
-
tling chronic fatigue syndrome
but his improving health has
seen the Australian gradually
reappear at select international
racing events, the latest of which
at Goodwood saw Stoner ride
his 2007 title-winning Ducati
Desmosedici and two Suzuki
RGV500s of Kevin Schwantz and
Kenny Roberts Jr.
Patterson asked Stoner what
changes he would make to the
current format and machine
regulations to change what he
describes as "clone wars" racing.
"I'd like to make some
changes," he said to Patterson.
"Winglets, gone. Ride height de
-
vices, gone. Anti-wheelie, gone.
Traction control cut to a safety
level and nothing more. Half this
s*** needs to go, needs to come
down.
"There needs to be a cap
on the rules that's there for 10
years, so that manufacturers
can reasonably catch up to
each other and not keep moving
this imaginary rule system that
doesn't really seem to be there."
Stoner believes the current
technical rules stymie rider tal
-
ents and machine discrepancies
and make for one-line racing,
saying, "Yamaha had a great
chassis and a smooth engine,
but it had a fault in that they
never had a particularly power-
ful engine. Then you had your
bikes with powerful engines that
couldn't put it on the ground.
Everyone had pros and cons.
"Now, you have clone wars.
Everyone just has to copy the
same f***ing thing and go in the
same direction. You don't see
pros and cons any more.
"We've got this incredible
slow-motion photography that's
an incredible waste of time,
because you're just watching a
bike go through a corner."
"There's no wheelieing, no
shaking, no someone showing
incredible control. You just come
out, twist the throttle, and noth
-
ing is going to happen. Come
on! It's frustrating me, because
as much as I love the sport and
love the racing side of the sport,
it disappoints me to see how far
it has gone."
CN
WIND
IN THE
P46
Casey Stoner (right), with current
Ducati MotoGP star Enea Bastianini,
didn't hold back on his opinion on
MotoGP's current state.
