Stoner sick of ‘clone wars’ MotoGP
Australian motorcycle racing legend Casey Stoner is calling for radical technical changes to MotoGP, which he believes is now “clone wars”.
Stoner was one of the many stars on show at last weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, where he reunited with his 2007 championship-winning Ducati Desmosedici GP7.
He rode that famous #27 bike around the 1.86km track, plus its 2008 predecessor where he scored six wins with the #1 and finished second in the championship.
Although 11 years have passed since Stoner announced his shock retirement at the age of 27, Stoner remains as passionate about racing as ever.
Speaking with THE RACE at Goodwood, the 2007 and 2011 MotoGP world champion made it clear he believes the category needs major changes to its technical rulebook to improve racing and regain popularity.
He also believes certain “bikes are dictating who’s allowed to beat who”.
“I’d like to make some changes,” Stoner said.
“Winglets, gone. Ride height devices, 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.
“Even when I was there, I remember people saying ‘oh we can change the rules to fit that.’ What’s the point of a rulebook if you can change it?
“All of this stuff, it’s pushing the price up so far, and you’ve got half the bikes on the grid dictating who’s allowed to beat who.
“It’s not fair and it’s not the way a world championship should be.”
Reflecting on the current quality of racing, Stoner said MotoGP has descended into “clone wars” with “everyone riding the same thing”.
In 2023 Stoner’s former manufacturer Ducati has won seven of the eight races so far and collected 18 of the possible 24 podium places on offer.
“Yamaha had a great chassis and a smooth engine, but it had a fault in that they never had a particularly powerful engine,” he said.
“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####g thing and go in the same direction. You don’t see pros and cons any more.
“There’s no wheelieing, no shaking, no someone showing incredible control. You just come out, twist the throttle, and nothing is going to happen. Come on!
“Look at the ride height device. If everyone’s got it, and everyone does the exact same thing. Get rid of it. Let people make mistakes coming out of corners.
“We don’t want a single-bike championship, we want differences.”
Stoner also went on to say electronic rider aids should be removed and stated he would be happy to help promoter Dorna make changes.
The 2023 MotoGP World Championship is currently in the middle of a long summer break and fires back up at Silverstone on August August 4-6.
Main image by MotoGP
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