MotoGP: Casey Stoner “Calling the 2020 season a world championship is a little bit difficult this year”
Casey Stoner has said that it is hard to call the 2020 season a world championship this season given the circumstances.
Casey Stoner appeared on the Australian Grand Prix podcast (which can be found here) this week and gave his thoughts on the 2020 season and how some people are benefited more than others, MotoGP will host 14 rounds at nine different tracks with 5 tracks hosting two races. It is safe to say Stoner did not hold back with his comments.
“I think it’s fantastic that the racing is up and going again and keeping the whole thing rolling as good as we can imagine right now, unfortunately, I am going to be a little opinionated with some things. I think the first one is calling it a world championship is a little bit difficult this year. “You’re racing two races at the same circuit, and if this selection of circuit suits somebody then it really is a big benefit and they’re not really travelling around the world.” Said Stoner
Continuing from this he said, “Creating a ‘world championship’ is not something I’m a big fan of, but the racing itself is fantastic to get up and going.”
Stoner also gave his opinion on other topics including Marc Marquez not racing and Marc Marquez’s comeback attempt:
When speaking about Marquez not racing he said, “Without Marc there, quite honestly, there is no leader, at the moment. You see that by the results, by the people that are standing on the top step of the podium. Marc was a clear leader and took that championship to another level. When I was there it was myself, Valentino, Jorge and Dani that were always at the front stretching the field out. At the moment they don’t really have that rider to do it that is Marc, showing what you should be doing each week and a level of consistency throughout a season.
Because this season is condensed, two races at most circuits, they sort of feel that if they got a half decent result one week they will be okay for the next week, it is a very, very different championship, and I think it is upsetting the mix in a lot of ways like that.
Then you have had two races that have been red-flagged and re-started, and I don’t agree with not having the aggregate times. For instance Joan Mir was doing a great job there out in front in the second race in Austria, and then gets that absolutely stripped away from him and ends up with no result, I just don’t think that’s fair. In racing in general just to be able to put a full grid re-start and let people go well I only have six laps to keep it towards the front, I don’t necessarily agree with that style of racing.”
Casey Stoner and Marc Marquez
He then gave comments on Marquez racing within a week of breaking his arm.
“I mean we have all ridden through injuries, if you don’t then you are certainly not going to be a MotoGP rider. Crashes happen and they’re kind of unavoidable, then you sort of have to ride through it. But an accident as severe as Marc’s was always going to be, in my opinion, quite impossible to return in that short time span that he tried to ride. I think if he gave it a week or two that first time around he may have had enough strength and everything to then ride the rest of the season, and work his way slowly back towards the front. And with the way the races have gone he probably could have still have been winning.
“But I think it was just far too premature coming back with an injury like that, without at least it being pinned from both sides of his arm, so he was always going to be a little bit too weak, there was going to be movement in there, things like that. It has got to be hard for him, maybe waiting an extra week or two could have had him in there for the rest of the season and still have a very realistic shot at the championship but now having to sit out for this long has got to be hard work for sure.”
Featured image – www.motogp.com
