The Ducati MotoGP Engine Only Casey Stoner Could Ride

Comments · 15

• MO

  @Moto.Engine · 3 months ago · pinned

  Ducati didn&apos;t just build a difficult motorcycle. They accidentally built the world&apos;s most precise talent filter. Loris Capirossi — the most experienced Ducati MotoGP rider alive in 2007, a former race winner on the brand — fought the GP7 across all 18 rounds. One victory. Seventh in the championship. Nearly 200 points behind his 21-year-old teammate.Casey Stoner&apos;s honest account of his first test laps at Valencia, November 2006:&quot;When I signed for Ducati, it was very exciting going to a factory team. But after my first laps on the bike, my thought was — what have I done? I&apos;ve made a huge mistake.&quot;Then he did something no other professional on the grid was willing to do. Instead of demanding changes — different geometry, different engine mapping, make it feel familiar — Stoner went quiet, went methodical, and changed himself.&quot;You&apos;ve got to forget everything you think you know. You can&apos;t be proud in the slightest. You&apos;ve got to succumb to the bike.”<br><br>Five words. The entire secret of the 2007 season.<br><br>His Queensland dirt track childhood had wired his nervous system differently. Where every European road racer&apos;s instinct said load the front, force the turn — the GP7 punished exactly that. Where their hands automatically closed the throttle at the first hint of a rear slide — Stoner&apos;s stayed open. He&apos;d been managing rear slides as a steering tool since he was four years old.<br><br>The telemetry showed something Ducati&apos;s engineers genuinely didn&apos;t understand: front brake and full throttle applied simultaneously mid-corner, forcing a chassis that refused to turn to rotate anyway.<br><br>Then in 2011, Valentino Rossi arrived to settle the debate permanently. Nine world championships. Italian national hero. Two full seasons, chassis rebuilt at his request, geometry changed to suit his style.<br><br>Zero wins. Three podiums.&quot;I can&apos;t ride this bike well, even in comparison with my fellow Ducati riders.&quot;The debate ended there. The machine had not won in 2007. Casey Stoner had.<br><br>👇 One question — make your case in the comments:<br><br>Who is the greatest one-bike specialist in motorsport history? The rider whose specific skills were so perfectly matched to one machine that nobody else could replicate it?<br><br>Drop your answer. We read every single one.<br><br>🏁 The most perfect partnerships in motorsport aren&apos;t designed. They&apos;re discovered by accident — and only recognized after someone else fails to repeat them.

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• CH

  @chriskennard5920 · 3 months ago

  Stoner was, and still is an absolutely amazing slider / rider. That skill was always so impressive and allowed him to win again and again.

  6

• GI

  @giuseppegalione1388 · 3 months ago

  Una moto con una potenza &quot;selvaggia&quot; un solo domatore. Casey Stoner!👍👏

  1

• VM

  @vmax4steve524 · 2 months ago

  Bridgestone tyres developed for the bike and tweeked for each rider helped as Stoner was provided with a hard rear tyre that could handle those slides. Also the electronics cut cylinders on the engine for slower parts of the track that enabled fuel to be saved for those high speed straights. Bridgestone riders suffered when Rossi was given a number one rider contract with Bridgestone the following year in a deal brokered by Dorna. Even when Bridgestone was the control tyre Rossi was their number one rider and that only changed when Lorenzo was given equal status with Rossi when he joined the Yamaha factory team, the reason why Rossi left Yamaha for Ducati.<br>American Kenny Roberts, who also had a dirt track history, did something similar when he joined Yamaha in 1978 when he tamed that nasty 500cc two stroke and won three titles in a row.

  2

• OT

  @othgmark1 · 3 months ago

  This is patently untrue on the premise that only Casey could ride it. At Mugello in 2007 Alex Barris on the B team Ducati caught and passed Casey from behind. At this point in his career Alex was not Casey&apos;s equal but he still rode the bike to a podium. The reason that other people struggled with the bike in later years was the spec tires and the frame did not agree. In 2007 Bridgestone was building Ducati specific tires. Later it was a standard spec. This is not my opinion this is direct from a conversation with Randy Mamola who got to ride the 2007 with the Bridgestones that were made for it. He later got to ride following years with the spec tires that did not work as well with the frame. Casey was a special talent for sure but he wasn&apos;t the only person that could ride the 2007. He was the best at riding it.

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• GH

  @ghostofcpast8893 · 2 months ago

  I like Ducati and Stoner but I hate AI voice over

  2

• PA

  @Patriot-Logic · 2 months ago

  Wrong as usual the Gp bikes 800cc produced 200-220 in 07 but 220 -250 by 2011

  1

• MA

  @mariooliveira550 · 1 month ago (edited)

  And Waine Rainey?

• SH

  @ShaunDonohue-g1q · 3 months ago

  Zx MOTO would blow all these away.....😅

• DE

  @Desmo500 · 2 months ago

  &quot;Succumb to the bike&quot;, is not five words, it is four, maybe you need an editor....

  1

• UN

  @unexplainedwearenotalone3537 · 2 months ago

  no ducati built but cosworth and HWA helped ducati built and 1000 cc new engitn V4 so i no see any special from ducati much more audi own the ducati and aprillia i trust only kawa and Honda CF moto and Zx moto Kove real bikes who rule now

• TO

  @ToddWright2 · 3 months ago

  There is zero engineering in these vids.