Stoner was considered one of the original magnificent four along with Rossi, Lorenzo and Pedrosa. But at the end of 2012 and when he was still young and fast, he decided to put an end to his sporting career. Although he was still linked to Ducati and Honda for a while, and did work for Nolan, he never participated in a GP again. Even so, he competed in 178 Grand Prix, achieved 45 victories, 89 podiums, 43 pole positions, 33 fastest laps and two MotoGP World Champion titles.
Regarding the titles and more specifically about the year after winning them and how he faced the defense of the number 1, Stoner was clear in his approach in an interview given to Crash.net during the presentation of Ride 6. With the same simplicity that made the impossible possible, he was able to dominate a Ducati that no one else could, and he was also able to go out on the track and ride from the fast start; He has said that he was not defending the title.
It may seem strange, but Stoner, who wore the number 1 in his career the two seasons after winning the title, said the following: “I have never ‘defended’ a title, in my opinion”. It is not that the Australian did not want to or was not in a position to do so, it refers to the way of approaching the new season.
Casey was clear about who his biggest rival was.
Stoner’s mentality is that he was his greatest rival, that the season began with zero points in his locker, and from there he had to work to score more points than the rest, regardless of what had happened the previous year: “It’s always a new championship, a clean slate. We all start from zero points and we are in a race to see who accumulates the most before the season ends.”
There is no doubt that it is a way to take off pressure, to control your expectations and not to relax by savoring the honeys of the past either: “I took things one race at a time. I never saw anyone as a final boss or someone specific that I had to beat.”
This philosophy of going race by race is explained perfectly in the last sentence, that of the rival to beat: “If a driver was in fantastic form on a weekend, then he had a target on his back, he was the man to beat.” Perhaps that is why Casey was always so fast and so competitive, and that is that apart from his debut year in MotoGP, his worst seasons were finished with two fourth places, and they were the years when neither the Ducati worked nor Stoner was physically well.
