gd49 wrote:
Do you really think stoner had that much influence? I agree he could be quite irritating with his whining, and there's an argument his dominance was bad for racing, but you can make that argument against, Rossi, Vettel, Loeb or any other dominant racer. I don't doubt the paddock is a nicer place without Stoner, but would that affect the racing? I agree what I've seen of MotoGP this year has been better than the past 2 years but I wouldn't put that down to Stoner's absence.
I'm not talking about Stoner on the bike, the dominance (which he and his teams worked hard for and deserved) nor the talent. You say he didn't have much influence, how can you be so sure?
There's an interesting article on Autosport.com written by Toby Moody after the Qatar GP, in which he talks about the immediate change in MotoGP this year and how refreshingly different the place is without a certain Casey Stoner... I'll let Toby take up the story...
Toby Moody wrote:
As I write, I'm sitting in the press office at the Losail circuit after a magic-carpet-ride of an evening in which a mist has lifted from over the paddock.
Everyone was a winner on the podium, for reasons that are blazingly obvious, but the real winners out of this first race have been the MotoGP fans, who have been subjected to five years of 800cc rules that arguably shouldn't have been introduced, and gave us a run of three standard-issue winners week in week out after the glory years of the 990s, when we never really knew who was going to win. How different Qatar 2013 was!
Sure, it's easy to walk around all day with rose-tinted spectacles with frames made out of metal from Nicky Hayden's V5 or Valentino Rossi's Welkom Yamaha, but Qatar 2013 was just the ticket to kick off the season.
Primetime TV, a spectacular visual assault under the floodlights, the whites of our heroes' eyes peering through the visors, 800-degree glowing brake discs, spitting exhausts and fresh podiums for two guys, one of whom is a worldwide icon.
The 990cc era: Alex Barros, Rossi, Marco Melandri, Sete Gibernau, Loris Capirossi, Hayden, Max Biaggi, Tohru Ukawa, Dani Pedrosa, Toni Elias, Makoto Tamada, Troy Bayliss. Twelve winners in five years and only three one-time winners among them.
Since 2007's start of the 800 era, and including last year's 1000 debut, we've had Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo, Rossi, Pedrosa, Chris Vermuelen, Andrea Dovizioso, Capirossi and Ben Spies. Eight winners in six years and the last four mere one-time winners.
We need some great races again. We need that fog to lift.
Was it a great race at the front in Qatar? No, it wasn't, but it was a better race than paper will ever tell us. Lorenzo could have won by 10 seconds, but the way that he celebrated in parc ferme after clinching pole and then the race was more than worthy of a proud man who hadn't won since mid-September at Misano. Long time ago, that, for a racer.
But we really shouldn't have been so surprised that he won it – it was his 10th podium in his 10th appearance at the Losail racetrack! Those big long sweepers out the back rather suit the Yamaha and one of the classic 250cc style racers of the modern era.
The last non-Pedrosa/Stoner/Lorenzo winner was Spies at Assen 2011, nearly two seasons ago, so Jorge's victory fits the pattern. Why, then, was this race any different? Simple: Rossi and Marc Marquez were on the podium too, and when all three of them got to parc ferme they were smiling, laughing and joking to the extent that it seemed they were going to pool their podium bonuses and hire out a nightclub for one massive bender... if Doha had any nightclubs.
Couldn't have seen that happening if Stoner had won it, could you?
We were all in awe of what Stoner could do on a bike, but it really did only take 44 minutes for Marquez to fill his boots and Rossi to save us from the boredom of post-race chats and rants about how rubbish the MotoGP championship was.
Indeed, it was interesting over the weekend that so many people got pent-up Stoner stories out in the open. When Dennis Noyes and I had one of our many long, almost strategic chats, it was only when I mentioned the lifting of the 'Stoner fog' that Dennis suddenly realised why the paddock was a happier place, almost as if all of us who support MotoGP have been vindicated in sticking to our guns in support of the sport we are devoted to, no matter what.
And let's not forget the low point of the terrible death of Marco Simoncelli, a hero who was emerging in the big class. Ye gods, what would he have been like on a 2013 1000cc Gresini Honda? I've just had goosebumps as I wrote that.
It's the characters who make the stories, hand in glove with the track action. Do we all really think that Valentino and Jorge will be all pally and laughing all the way through the 18 races?
Will we hear, 'Sorry Jorge, but this is racing' or 'Did your ambition outweigh your talent, Valentino?' from either of them as the season unfolds?
When Marquez puts a tough move on Pedrosa on the last lap at Catalunya, how's Livio Suppo going to manage it at HRC?
Do we look forward to when Cal Crutchlow gets his first win and sends the UK into a spin?
Will Ducati shut all us journos up with front rows and podiums in one massive turnaround?
Ah, I can see clearly now the fog is lifting, and it's lifting because most of our hopes and expectations have just come true since the middle of last summer, when we knew Marquez would be on a Repsol Honda and Rossi would be shunning his impossible Ducati to return to his faithful Yamaha.
Lorenzo might've felt nervous about VR returning, but he took it on the chin and was in 'bring-it-on' mood for 2013. The Majorcan had won the title in 2010 and '12, but in many naysayers' minds the first crown was won only because Rossi had bust his leg and missed a load of races. He wanted a straight fight against them all to prove it wasn't a fluke. Very gladiatorial. Very Spartan. Very Jorge.
But what a 34-year-old Rossi has just done is prove to himself that he still has it after all this time. In Formula 1 Michael Schumacher couldn't do it, but Kimi Raikkonen has.
No, Valentino hasn't won a race, yet (one swallow doesn't make a summer and all that), but he can smell blood for more. Still, my head says, 'How can he beat Jorge after two years of misery while Jorge got better and better?' But we all know he'll be racing for a long time, and racing fast too.
He probably reckons he can have the better of Marquez in a scrap, but that's not a given. Lorenzo is another matter – he's wiser now and will never leave the door open at Catalunya again. He's better than that now. By a long way.
When Rossi is up he's unstoppable, whereas when he's down we all know what happens, such as when he left Yamaha. "He left because he was unhappy," said Lin Jarvis.
What's dangerous for the others is what Valentino said before the weekend, that he was looking forward to getting through the first two grands prix and then getting his teeth into the homeland: Europe.
"Usually the tracks where I grow up and where I learn to ride the motorcycle are better," he said. "I hope."
Lorenzo is the boss at Yamaha now, and it's down to Rossi to fight his way back up, but Jarvis was happy to put the two together again.
"Of course there's always a risk. Two competitive riders in one team can always create issues, and obviously if you have the current number one there is always a risk. So it's a matter of do you take a lead rider and a support rider, effectively play safe and put all your bets on that? But we took Valentino for a number of reasons. We've had a dream start."
Lin later said he had handed a senior engineer at Yamaha a piece of paper with his predictions of the race written on it, strictly instructing him to only look at it after the race. It said Lorenzo, Crutchlow, Rossi, proving even the bigwigs at Yamaha were surprised at Rossi's pace.
Honda is a factory scorned after this first race, and you don't want to do that.
"I did not enjoy that race," said Shinichi Kokubu, the former technical director of HRC MotoGP and now the man in charge of the technical development division.
They'll fight back with a victory at Austin and they will turn the bike around for the fast corners, just as they did throughout last year. After all, they're HRC and Pedrosa on his day is meteoric – the hope for HRC being that he can string 18 meteors together. Don't miss the fact that Marquez set the fastest lap on lap three, over half a second ahead of the next fastest Honda.
Ah, another mist that's clearing, as Marquez ticks that first milestone off his list. Now things are becoming clearer into 2013.
Stoner's influence was far greater than you think. His attitude at times was that he was the biggest thing in the sport, in fact he was bigger than the sport. His reactions and behaviour to some of his fellow riders, the marshalls, the sports rules makers was poor at best. All of this was unfortunate because his riding ability was amazing. After Rossi broke his leg at Mugello Jorge Lorenzo (who wasn't exactly overly popular at the time) grew in stature and popularity by the way he went about winning the championship but also recognizing the fact that the championship was his only because of the injuries his chief rivals suffered throughout the season. In 2011 there was a similar theme to the way the championship was won, but Stoner believed the title triumph was down to him and he only. Sometimes a little humility goes a long way.
Thinking of the 2013 races specifically, if you're looking for overtake after overtake then apart from a few odd races MotoGP and 500cc have never provided that.
If Casey does one day come back I hope he can be competitive and bring another bike up to the front to challenge for wins. But not if it means he brings along with him his sulky, obnoxious demenour.
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