Stoner to HRC, done deal?

[I weep for Ducati unless they can get Rossi or Lorenzo in 2011]

Stoner 'has already decided to go', fears Ducati

As speculation over the MotoGP 2011 rider merry-go-round increasingly
gathers pace, a well-informed Ducati Marlboro source concedes that
2007 world champion Casey Stoner 'has already decided' to switch to
Repsol Honda next year
Casey Stoner 'has already decided' to leave Ducati Corse for Repsol
Honda in MotoGP 2011, a well-informed insider from the Australian's
current team has conceded – as his suitor admitted that it is also
'interested' in regaining the services of Valentino Rossi.

It was reported earlier this month that Stoner and Honda have all-but
agreed terms for the 2007 MotoGP World Champion to switch camps for
next season [see separate story – click here], and whilst Ducati
itself has maintained its silence on the matter, a source within the
Italian outfit has revealed to GPWeek that there is now no going back.

“As far as Casey going to Honda next year, I think it's a done deal,”
the 'highly-placed' team member stated. “I don't have any hard
information and I don't want to go on the record, but it's just a gut
feeling. I think he has already decided to go.”

Chief amongst Stoner's motivations to join Honda is the presence there
of former Ducati team manager Livio Suppo, who oversaw the 24-year-
old's march to the crown three years ago in only his maiden campaign
with the team and second in the premier class and has in 2010 moved to
Honda in a marketing and managerial capacity.

Another carrot is the opportunity to return the Japanese manufacturer
to title glory for the first time since 2006, as well as the personal
prospect of joining the elite group of just Rossi, Eddie Lawson and
Geoff Duke to successfully claim the premier class championship with
two different marques.

Aside from an opportunistic victory for veteran Loris Capirossi in the
wet/dry 2007 Japanese Grand Prix – the same event at which Stoner
lifted the laurels – no other rider has triumphed for Ducati since the
Queensland native joined the squad, during which time he has equalled
the tally of 20 successes notched up over the same period by record-
breaking multiple world champion Rossi, despite being sidelined by
illness for some of last year, an episode that is believed to have
created a degree of tension with title sponsor Marlboro.

There have also reportedly been rather too many accidents for his
employer's liking – including two in the first three races of 2010
alone – and Honda has made little secret of its desire to secure the
signature of the 27-time race-winner.

Such an eventuality would mean one of the two present incumbents –
Dani Pedrosa or the increasingly impressive Andrea Dovizioso – having
to make way, with either Jorge Lorenzo or FIAT Yamaha team-mate Rossi
looking to be in-line to replace Stoner at Ducati, despite Lin Jarvis'
protestations that the objective is to retain both riders [see
separate story – click here]. 'The Doctor' has similarly been
mentioned in connection with Honda, although given the manner in which
he left back at the end of 2003, a rapprochement does not appear
likely.

“We haven't drawn a programme for next year yet,” HRC vice-president
Shuei Nakamoto told Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“Maybe we'll do it in July, but the four best riders have their
contracts expiring so it's normal we are interested in all of them,
Valentino too.

“Because Honda is not content with podiums, we want to win, we've
asked Colin Stoner (Casey Stoner's father and manager) if they would
like to come with us. However, we absolutely didn't get into the
details – like number of years or retainer – at all.”

 

There are a few source claiming it is a done deal. One has to wonder
what HRC is thinking. Stoner's track recordindicates he is not any
better than Pedrosa when it comes to bike development. More aggressive
-yes. More methodical -no.

 

What makes you say that? He, his race engineer and Preziosi between them
have developed a bike that he can ride extremely fast. Are you saying
Stoner had no part to play in that? That his feedback isn't methodical?

 

Have they? Really? What I recall is that Stoner arrived at Ducati as
the new #2 rider when he was 21, 22 years old and hade one season in
MotoGP, on a non-developmental satellite team. I seem to recall he
missed a decent chunk of winter testing, yet he came out of the box
winning 3 of the first 4 races, and the obvious advantages everyone
saw were that the bike had superior power and superior tires to the
other contenders on factory Hondas and Yamahas, and he rolled on to
the championship. What we also saw was Capirossi struggling on that
bike, and that continued in spades with Melandri in 2008 and Hayden
last year, at least until later in the year.

So I see nothing there which suggests Stoner really had much to do
with the development of that bike, he landed on it and it worked for
him right off and has continued to, but there's no evidence that his
development work has benefitted anyone else at all, the only evidence
of successful work on the bike by a rider and his team is Hayden. And
when Stoner has problems, as he is now having, he seems quite clueless
as to what they are.

So it appears to me that nothing has changed with Stoner, it looks
like he's just a guy who happened to land on a bike that works for
him, and him only, and he's managed not to change that too much, good
or bad. Because Ducati was already on Bridgestones when he got there,
and Ducati was Bridgestone's best/only hope, the tires had been
developed for their use, so he and his factory have not had to go
through any adjustment relative to tires. But he's gone from 10 wins
and the championship in '07 to 6 wins and second in '08 to 4 wins and
4th in '09, to this year when he's not yet won, not yet been on the
podium, and outside the top 10 in points. If he's been developing that
bike it's not been successfully by all appearances...

 

Why should it? And why does that mean that Stoner is having no input
into the bike development? He's fast on it, isn't he?