Stoner wants MotoGP motorcycles to be harder to ride

Stoner retired from MotoGP at the end of the 2012 season after winning two world titles; one for Ducati in 2007 and one for Honda in 2011.

After completing his MotoGP racing career, Stoner held test driver roles at Honda and Ducati until 2018 and also briefly drove in the Super2 class of the Supercars championship in Australia.

Stoner returned as a guest in the MotoGP paddock during the final laps of the 2021 campaign, suggesting that aerodynamics in MotoGP had “basically become Formula 1” and contributed to an increase in costs.

He also believes that the spec electronics currently used by the entire grid should be tweaked to make the motorcycles more difficult to ride.

“To be honest, I would like to have a say in the technical regulations,” said Stoner.

“Of course it would be controversial, but I think there are elements that don’t have to be.

“They are certainly not a security problem, they just drive up the price and everything.

“We’re trying to make things cheaper, but one of the elements we have now is basically Formula 1 and the costs have just gone through the roof.

“So I would like to see certain parts go away. In electronic terms too, I think there has to be a big reduction.

“I think it was in 2016 or something that they introduced with the same ECU, it was still better than the year before.

“So it wasn’t the step backwards everyone thought would be.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati team with Casey Stoner

Photo by: Francesco Bagnaia

“And I honestly believe we need to go backwards. I want them to slide, I want to see people fight for grip out of the corners, people maybe start the race really well, but maybe fall behind with their tire choices and people come back more slowly.

“It’ll all happen with a few other regulations, it wouldn’t take much.

“And I think overtaking would be better than now because it wouldn’t just be on the brakes.

“You would find someone to screw up the exit a bit and someone would mug them.

“Then the bike setup would also be much more critical. I think if a few things changed the race would be amazing. “

Stoner criticized the direction in which the MotoGP 2012 went with the CRT regulations, which ultimately paved the way for the spec electronics used today, which have helped make the MotoGP so competitive.

Since that move in 2016, nine drivers have won races in 2016, nine again in 2020 and eight drivers in 2021 – with a mix of factory and satellite drivers and five of the six manufacturers contributing to these numbers.

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