Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

crashes in Italy and Spain, he hasn't finished worse than sixth. At the latest round in England, he battled for second with Rossi and Melandri, and ended up fourth. You seem to have made the transition from 250s pretty easily. Why so? It's not as difficult as everyone thinks. A lot of people, when they jumped from 500s to MotoGP, said it has a lot more power, but it's a lot easier to ride. It's similar to a 250. There's a lot more power and acceleration, and you have to keep your weight over the front of the bike to stop the front wheel coming up, but to change direction, actually the weight of the bike is actually no different to a 250. It's harder finding the right setup for the races that are a lot longer, and it wears the tires a lot harder. Getting the bike set up for the end of the race is the most difficult thing. You've surprised a lot of people; Including yourself? It was a big surprise for me, especially after missing so much testing [for a shoulder operation]. The 125 and 250 classes I actually found a lot more difficult to ride. I suppose that is just from my background, growing up in dirt track, so it's a bit easier for me to slide and move the bike around, and get a little bit more feedback. For me, it's a little more easy to control than a 125 and 250, where you just need to have confidence. MotoGP is more about rider ability than just sheer balls and craziness. On 125s and 250s, if you're crazy enough, and just hold it open in one corner where you shouldn't and you get away with it, you make time. That's where I lost a lot in 125 and 250. At the more slippery tracks, I was faster than most of the guys. As soon as we came to the European tracks and they were all confident, then I'd lose out. Is it harder to set up than a 250? That's the main thing. You can't really go too wrong with the setup - it will always be quite good. You can get com- pletely lost with a 125 or a 250. These [MotoGP] bikes are the best, all the makers have put all their effort into these bikes. But to get the last little bit is much more difficult. Like I said with the 125 and 250, with the confidence thing, if you get lucky you can do it. But with a MotoGP bike you have to get it to hook up and drive down the straight hard- er, so it's a lot less to do with just confidence, and a lot more with rider ability. Is it more of a mental challenge? It's eased off a bit for me this year because there's not as much pressure, and I've already come up with a few good results. In past years at this time of the season, we've been struggling to get going. Also, every year we've struggled to get a decent ride. Now we've put ourselves in a position where we can at least get a half-decent bike. Any one of these bikes in MotoGP is capable of winning. You see Kawasaki and Suzuki are going pretty well. Yamaha and Ducati are capable of winning. It's not as much of a task to get on a decent bike, and the results have given me a little bit more confidence and taken a lot of pressure off my shoulders. What's the difference between your bike and the factory bikes? I really don't know, and I don't think anybody does. It'd be nice to get a few extra bits of what they've got, because there's definitely been obvious differences in a couple of races. But I'm very happy for the opportunity that Honda has given me, so I'm not complaining. What are the differences - is it horsepower? Horsepower is not a problem. You've got to be able to put the power to the ground for a start, and my bike is always fastest through the speed traps. I haven't got a problem with the engine. It's just mainly chassis things. When we're struggling for side grip, the factory bikes seem to be pretty well planted. Like in China, for instance, there was no way anyone was going to beat those bikes [Pedrosa and Hayden]. It was quite obvious they had something different from what we had. What are the differences in riding technique. Do you use the rear brake differently? Do you use it to control wheelspin? I've always used the rear brake in pretty much the same way - a bit on the entry, then mostly in the middle of the corner, just to keep the bike stable and to get it to turn. I pretty much transferred the same system from the 250. You always use it for wheelspin to a certain degree, but I don't use it as a traction-control system too much. It's just the way I ride. Traction control is with your right hand, so that's pretty simple. How are you coping with the new level of elec- tronics? MotoGP has a lot more electronics, but it's also not left up to you. You give them the feedback on the electronics and what you could do with a little bit more of. They know what they can adjust, and they basically tell me what they're going to put into the three systems, try them and see which you prefer, and in what way, and we keep mak- ing steps from there. By the time you get to the race you should have a pretty decent electronic system. How much does it help to change maps during the race? Depends, really. If you have good grip at the end of the race, there is no need to go for more traction control. But if you're losing grip then you have to do a bit more. It's a very small advantage when you're getting tired, and not concentrating as much and you don't have as much throttle control, and it just helps a little bit. But the Michelin tires they're making today basically become better as the race goes on, so that's a bit advantage. That's not a usual comment. Is that because you like it when it slides more easily? Maybe that's why I seem to be able to go forward at the end of the race, but our settings lately seem to be a little better at the end of the race. We've been concentrating on that part, even though we're sort of messed up, I suppose, at the start. I think we're doing well enough at the end. Now we just need to work on the start. At Qatar I was quick at the beginning, but at the end we didn't have it quite sorted, and that's when I vowed to get it good for the end of the race. Before the year began, did you think you might have been on the podium so soon? No way. My goal for the start of this year was basically to get the top five by the end - not in the championship, just in a race. So other than the first race, every one has been inside the top five, which I'm pretty happy about. And I've got a pole position that I didn't expect at least for a couple of years. Is it hard to keep driving yourself when it is com- ing so easily? Basically, this season I was expecting it to be unbelievably difficult, and have to work a heck of a lot harder than what I am. We're still working hard, but I didn't really expect it to fall into place like this. This has given me another encour- agement. Coming into this season I didn't know if I was going to make it in this class or not. I've been able to prove that even to myself. So now it's given me even more of a determination and a will to do well and try and make myself run upfront. When I was little I always dreamed of being World Champion and said I was going to be. But now, I actually think in the next few years we might be able to push at the front of the championship. We might not be able to win one, but at least I know I'm fast enough to be able to give everybody a bit of a problem. Have you had to up your training? I've finally got back into cycling. I've done a lot of cycling in the past week. I did about two and half weeks of strength training over the summer... and that helped a lot, but other than that, I was always pretty fit for the 250s, no matter what anybody said. How do you feel at the end of the race? I've been a lot better this year. I am a lot fitter. On a 250 I didn't really need to be a lot fitter than I was. At the end of the races I feel better than at any time in my career. At the end of the races I've been doing my fastest laps, so - no problem there. If I was in a fighting position, I'd be strong enough to fight. In Turkey we were good at the start and all the way through, and at the end we were fastest. Unfortunately, Melandri was just that little bit better under brakes, and that was that. Even in China we were bloody good at the end of the race, but I made a mistake, unfortunately. If that hadn't have happened. I feel I could have pushed for the podium. When you were KTM, they made some adverse comments about your training and diet. How do you react to that? They have their system and they can say what the heck they want. But who is to say what works? I was with Ben Townley in the Red Bull center, and they were getting us to do a mental test. You have to spend an hour-and-a-half or two hours sitting in front of a computer doing all stupid lit- tle things. And then they'd tell us what we need to become a good racer. You know, really, they should be taking advice off people who do it their own way, and then telling them, maybe, you need to do... this or that. Whereas they're telling us how we need to be mentally before races, and how we need to be physically. They got me to do training tests on things I never normal- ly do. They got me on a bicycle when I always normally ran - things like this. I didn't agree with it too well. I suppose we sort of proved to them, we do it our way. I got a personal trainer in the summer, and he helped me a lot. I told him the specific things I needed, and we worked on those areas. KTM are trying to be a little bit too technical with things like that. But basically everyone is their own person, and that is why they are special. It seemed at the end of last year you might be on the way to Yamaha. What happened there? You know as much as me. Did you speak with Yamaha? They talked to my father. There's things like that going on in the paddock all the time, though. We did have a lot to do with them last year, but unfortunately, they had problems of their own, and Honda came through for us in the end. I understood that Jerry Burgess [Rossi's crew chief] was keen to get you on strength as another Australian. But it looks like Valentino's going to stay, so that's gone down the road. We'll just wait and see what's going to hap- pen. You have reacted a few times to criticism - when Rossi suggested you would have trouble on worn tires, and comments in Australia by Wayne Gardner criticizing your riding style. Does it worry you what other people think. No, it doesn't I just think people should keep their mouths shut if they don't know what they're talking about. In the past years I've been criticized for being a crasher. Merely because I'm trying to ride my arse off on a bike that isn't capable of winning races. I've got to where I am doing what I'm doing, and the criticism has sort of stopped. So it's a nice feeling to get here and prove what I can do and shut a lot of people up. People like Wayne Gardner, he's on the outside. He does- n't come to this paddock, so if he doesn't know what's going on, he should keep his opinions to himself. CN C Y C L E N E W S • JULY 19, 2006 31 CASEY STONER IS ONE OF THE YOUNG SURPRISES OF THE MOTOGP SEASON

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