If you won't listen to one of the few riders that know how to ride a ducati and ring it's neck to make it win, then it is pointless, agreed. Stoner has never appeared to me to just be a journey man.
Just because he was a fantastic rider who could ride around the known problems, doesn't mean he will automatically be a great development rider.
Uuummmm.... So back to honda then!!!.... Looks like the Honda way of winning is break a vastly improving team by nicking some of its assets .....
Well really needed to listen to him didn’t they, not like they developed a bike without him so guess they”ll miss him
Does anyone know what Gigi relationship with Stoner is like? You can't help thinking its a bit crazy losing Lorenzo and now Stoner but they are very strong now so must be something right happening.
TBF if they dont listen to him yet the two main riders, plus those in the second tier, seem to be doing ok anyway
I don't think you should be aiming for OK. During Stoners 1st stint he described perfectly how the bike should be changed to improve it. But because he was winning the engineering dept simply ignored him and tried to get the 2nd rider to ride like Stoner by showing them Stoners data. You might remember Chaz D having a brief stand in and when he was showed Stoners data he said that he would crash on every corner if he tried to ride like that. Only when he left have they started implementing his ideas. Gigi having the most success making the bike rideable. I bet Lorenzos late adaptability was down to engineering showing JL the data from AD and trying to get him to ride like AD, before they eventually caved with the tank mod. If you want a fast bike my money is on listening to Stoner. TB
Thing is, with the possible exception of Marquez, nobody else can ride like Stoner. So, making a bike that will work brilliantly for him may be of little benefit when he won't be riding it.
Interesting , listening to the commentators today at testing, they were talking about loosing Stoner from the testing side of Ducati and they said it wasn't such a big deal as he only tested once in the last year due to injury.
If you were a rider, would you want Stoner as a tester? Not sure I would: he has a particular way of riding and will always have bragging rights opportunities if he is quicker in test environment than main rider in a race (or even close).
There must come a point when you have been out of racing at top level long enough that your view is no longer relevant. Bikes have moved on a fair bit since he was racing 6 years ago. If they have not been listening to him then maybe the results show that perhaps they didn't need to.
I am a huge Stoner fan. As a racer he was a class apart. But I agree with Old Rider. The bike needs to be developed for lesser mortals, unless they hire Marquez. The other thing which I think should be remembered is that the bike has been improving massively, so whatever they are doing without his advice, it is working.
