Casey Stoner: Valentino Rossi “controlled” media, “they turned me into a villain”

Casey Stoner has opened up about Valentino Rossi’s influence over the media during their MotoGP heyday.

Stoner and Rossi have buried the hatchet in recent times, particularly after the Australian’s visit to the Tavullia ranch.

But in their competitive days their public personas were in stark contrast - with the fun and charismatic Rossi seen as opposite to the withdrawn and introverted Stoner.

“He had everybody controlled, even press-wise,” Stoner said earlier this year on the Ducati Diaries podcast.

“He was so important to every form of media. If they ever wrote any crap about him, he’d blacklist them!

“As he did that, they couldn’t afford that. They could not afford their newspaper to be blacklisted, and not have an interview or any dealings with Valentino.

“They thought ‘we have got to write bad press about someone’ and I became his enemy No 1.

“They turned me into the villain.

“It’s often like that, that the people who get twisted into being the villain just because they are not so outwardly kind.

“A lot of people were against Dani Pedrosa for the same reason. They didn’t like his seriousness. But we’ve seen the character of Dani come out later on.

“Dani is somebody who I stayed friends with throughout all of racing, even in our championship battles.

“Nothing but respect for him, he’s got nothing but respect for me. We are friends to this day.

“But they loved to twist it. Dani wasn’t loved as much as he could have been, maybe because he was too serious, too focused on results, rather than acting as a showman.

“I didn’t follow in Valentino’s footsteps. I didn’t try to take on the role that he had.

“That was him, his character. He was fantastic for the sport. He was almost perfect, how he did everything.

“I never tried to be that person. I’ve seen a lot of people since me trying to be this same character, trying to grab Valentino’s fanbase.

“But it’s so put-on, so acted. But they’re still loved for it.

Maybe I should’ve been this false person who played the fool to get attention. But it’s never been me.

“I just wanted to race bikes. I wanted to entertain, but not because you wanted it. There’s enough entertainment in what we do, and how close we race.”

Stoner won two MotoGP titles, in 2007 and 2011, before his early retirement. He beat Rossi on both occasions.

But Rossi’s career ended with seven premier class titles under his belt.

Their rivalry has calmed this year and Stoner recently made a surprise visit to the VR46 ranch when he and Rossi rolled back the years on the dirt track.