Casey Stoner leaving Honda fold, working with Ducati

Casey Stoner has left the Honda organization and is once again working with Ducati.

Stoner won both the 2007 and 2011 MotoGP championships, but walked away from racing at the end of the 2012 season. Since then, he’s spent his time racing cars in Australia, fishing, and most significantly, testing Honda’s MotoGP prototypes. Rumour was, he tried to get a wildcard with Honda after Dani Pedrosa was injured early in 2015, but was denied. He also raced at the Suzuka 8-Hour for Honda this summer, and crashed after a mechanical failure. Maybe that was the final straw for Stoner, as yesterday the weeks of rumours were confirmed — he’s no longer working for Honda. Now, he’s working with Ducati once more.

Stoner raced for Ducati in MotoGP, and saw success there — he won his first championship with them in 2007, and earned a second-place with their factory team in 2008. Stoner was never known as an easy-to-like rider, and when he parted ways with the team, he’d done some complaining about the factory bike, saying engineers weren’t listening to his suggestions for improvements (a sentiment echoed by later riders). All that seems to be forgotten; he’s back now, as the team’s test rider and brand ambassador.

As always, both companies issued press releases with all the usual platitudes: “We wish Casey the best, we’re so happy to have him back, etc., etc.” But it’s an interesting move for Stoner. Ducati saw their MotoGP efforts greatly improve this year, thanks to a combination of a much-improved bike (with some help from the rulebook) and riders gaining more experience.

However, Nicky Hayden’s been gone for a couple years, leaving Ducati with no link to their glory days. So, Stoner’s new posting makes perfect sense; not only is he the last man in MotoGP to achieve any real success on their machinery, he’s also intimately acquainted with Honda’s motorcycles and testing processes. He knows how Big Red makes their bikes go fast, and that knowledge will do Ducati a lot of good, as long as they listen to him. Last time around, Stoner complained they weren’t doing that; now, if the team’s success is any indication, that might have changed.

If so, be prepared for an even greater Ducati resurgence in 2016. And, maybe, just maybe, we’ll see that wildcard entry from Stoner that people have talked about since he left.