Marco Bezzecchi
Casey Stoner is one of MotoGP’s all-time greats, but “never really enjoyed winning” races and “especially” during his first title-winning season with Ducati back in 2007.
The Australian became the first rider to ever win a premier class title with Ducati in the 2007 MotoGP season. It also took the Borgo Panigale natives until 2022 to win another title, when Francesco Bagnaia started the Italian manufacturer’s first-ever era of dominance in MotoGP.
Stoner was the dominant force during the 2007 MotoGP season, as the native of Southport, Queensland won 10 of the 18 Grands Prix. He also took five pole positions, had 14 podiums, never finished lower than P6 and finished every race, to see out the season with 367 points.
Honda icon Dani Pedrosa and Yamaha legend Valentino Rossi were forced to fight for second place in the 2007 riders’ championship, as Stoner ran away with the title. Pedrosa beat Rossi for the silver spoon by just one point, as they ended the term with 242 and 241 respectively.
Casey Stoner “never really enjoyed winning” MotoGP races due to the “pressure”
But Stoner “never really enjoyed winning” due to the pressure the Australian felt, even from his family. The pain of making a mistake dwarfed what joy he found, which was “especially” the case as Stoner made history as the first Ducati rider to win a MotoGP title back in 2007.
It was not until later in Stoner’s career that he started to enjoy winning, which likely made 2011 even sweeter. In his first season after leaving Ducati for Honda, Stoner won the 2011 MotoGP riders’ title with 10 wins from 17 Grands Prix, 16 podiums and 12 pole positions.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Ducati from the MotoGP team’s riders to hierarchy
Stoner told the official MotoGP podcast in 2021: “For me, especially in 2007, I don’t think I really enjoyed it, because I had so much pressure from family and from everything else to get there. Even my races, I never really enjoyed winning the races as much.
“I always got just relief out of it. I was just relieved it was done [and] the weekend was done. I learned to enjoy it a lot more later on in my career. So, in my last couple of years, I did enjoy my victories and things like that.
“But, to be honest, I put a lot of pressure on myself to get things done. I didn’t like making mistakes. I probably didn’t like making mistakes more than I liked winning. So, that was a bigger hit to me than winning was.
“I’ve always been, not so much a perfectionist, but along those lines, that I want everything to be well. So, even if I won a race, if I made mistakes, I wasn’t happy.”
Why did Casey Stoner retire from MotoGP as a two-time champion aged 27?
Stoner truly dominated the 2007 season, including winning that year’s British Grand Prix by 11.768s to Colin Edwards. He also beat Chris Vermeulen by 9.865s in the United States GP, John Hopkins by 7.903s in the Czech GP and Loris Capirossi by 6.763s in the Australian GP.
The 2007 Catalan Grand Prix also yielded an all-time classic finish, as Stoner beat Rossi by only 0.069s and with Pedrosa in P3 only 0.390s behind the Ducati legend. Yet joy was rarely found in success for Stoner, which eventually saw him retire from MotoGP after seven years.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Honda from the MotoGP team’s riders to leadership
Stoner ultimately won 38 of his 117 Grands Prix in MotoGP, took 39 pole positions and made 69 podiums, as well as winning the 2007 title with Ducati and the 2011 title with Honda. The Australian also won two out of his 30 races in the 125cc class and five of his 31 250cc races.
Of his MotoGP Grand Prix wins, Stoner also achieved 15 from just 32 races for Honda before he retired at the end of the 2012 season. But Stoner retired, aged only 27, as he lost his love for the sport due to the increasing levels of electronic aids and the politics being played out.
Even if his love for racing in MotoGP did not fade, Stoner intended to retire before eclipsing Mick Doohan’s five titles. Stoner did not want to eclipse his icon and Australian compatriot’s successes in the 500cc era, which yielded 54 Grand Prix wins from 137 races from 1989-99.
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