VIDEO: Stoner talks at length about Sepang test, Ducati’s MotoGP bike and the future

It’s the first time that Casey Stoner has been out on the new Ducati MotoGP bike – and the first time he’s been out on a MotoGP bike at all for the past 12 months, so there’s a lot of interest in what the former world champion’s got to say.

As such, this 16 minute-long video (posted below) has appeared on the internet where Stoner talks pretty openly about the Ducati premier bike that he’s been asked to test and develop.

Stoner and fellow test rider Michele Pirro were putting the new bike through its paces at the Sepang test over the weekend. Stoner, world champion in 2007 and 2011, completed 54 laps with temperatures reaching around 40 degrees.

Banging in a time of 2m 02.1, the best time set on the last session, rode both the 2015 and 2016 bikes on the new Michelin tyres and spec ECU.

Stoner said: “It was a great experience today with the Ducati Team. I honestly didn’t know what to expect, but the whole team was fantastic: I was welcomed in the best way and we worked well together. I still need a little more time to return to a competitive level and find the right feeling because I haven’t ridden a MotoGP bike for a year and haven’t been on a race bike for six months. But it was a positive first day, we immediately found a good feeling with the bikes and tyres, quicker than I would have expected. We have many things to try and I still have to get used to the bike, but overall I’m happy. The Desmosedici GP has great potential and I hope to be able to give the right feedback to Gigi and the Ducati engineers to help the two Andreas get some good results this year. I’m happy and a bit surprised with my lap time and I hope to improve it further tomorrow. It was great to be working with Gabriel Conti again together with Marco Palmerini and Gigi Dall’Igna, who have all proven true professionals today.”

Here’s the video:

VIDEO: Stoner talks at length about Sepang test, Ducati’s MotoGP bike and the future