Stoner blames Ducati’s lack of MotoGP title success on ‘band-aid’ fixes
Stoner, who won his first MotoGP championship with Ducati in 2007 - which remains the Italian manufacturer’s only premier class title thus far - believes Ducati have shot themselves in the foot by taking electronics to a new level.
The reason for this is Stoner believes piling on electronics to a machine covers up the real deficiencies of a bike, something he battled hard with his own crew chiefs about.
Blaming Ducati’s lack of success on this reason, Stoner recently told the ‘In the Fast Lane Podcast': "It’s something that I enjoy and I have a lot of experience (being a rider coach).
"That word [experience] is something I never really enjoyed when I was younger but I do have experience in the right ways. I think this generation has lost a little bit of understanding of what goes into a weekend, whether you’re trying to save your tyres, whether you’re trying to set the bike up for the long runs etc, because so much of it now is electronics.
"They just pour the electronics on and I like to call it a band-aid fix. They're not the real fix and it’s not what’s underneath.
"When I was racing I always had a fight with my engineer to get rid of as many electronics as I could through the practice sessions and test sessions, things like that to really understand what’s happening with the bike underneath.
"Because you keep pouring these electronics on and it’s like putting a band-aid on top and just fixing the outer layout, outer crust and not actually fixing the issues underneath.
"I think that’s something Ducati have failed with all these years and why they haven’t won championships."
Current MotoGP riders ‘haven’t grasped’ consistency wins championships - Stoner
Switching away from electronics and onto the 2022 title fight, Stoner also spoke about the current state of play which sees Fabio Quartararo narrowly lead the way from Francesco Bagnaia.
Stoner alluded to many of the riders trying to win the championship too early, thus making unforced errors that could come back to bite them.
"I mean, Fabio [Quartararo] started a little bit rough but then took his stride and got himself a healthy points lead when everybody else was just crumbling around him," said Stoner.
"It seems to be that the last few years in MotoGP all you have to do is finish consistently towards the front and you’re going to win a world championship.
"None of the riders have seemed to grasp that properly. They’re all trying to win the championship early in the year but going down often, then trying to play catch up and things like that.
"It’s definitely been a rollercoaster the last few seasons and you’ve always found someone in form at different stages of the season which has made it exciting. Pecco’s obviously cleaned up his mistakes since last year and earlier this year.
"I think Ducati actually missed the ball earlier in the season when their 21 bike was clearly better than the 2022 and I actually still think it’s a better bike. You’ve got Enea Bastianini and it’s the same thing - if he just finished some of the races then he would be leading the championship right now.
"There’s a lot going on and there’s a lot of deserving riders. Will just have to see how this championship pans out. Fabio has got that pressure on him."
