The Australian, who has his residence fixed in Monaco , is spending a few weeks in Europe as he has to do every year in order to maintain his tax status, time that he takes advantage of to fulfill the commitments with the sponsors that he still maintains from his time as star pilots of the MotoGP World Championship.
Stoner was a two-time champion. In his second year in the queen class and the first with Ducati, he gave the Italian brand its only crown, in a season of legend. After signing for Honda, in 2011 he won again, retiring quite prematurely at the end of 2012 at only 27 years old, a decision that he regrets “absolutely”, he assured this Thursday in Portimao, where he offered a press conference.
Despite the fact that the Australian achieved multiple victories and showed off a spectacular driving, the two moments of his career that spilled the most ink were the duel with Valentino Rossi in Laguna Seca 2008, where the Italian passed him in the corkscrew through the sand and ended driving him crazy, and the accident in Jerez, when Rossi threw him in 2011, two actions that forged a rivalry that continues a decade later.
During his meeting with the media on Thursday, Stoner spoke about the season-ending retirement of his 42-year-old arch-rival.
“For me to run was to win, I still feel bad that I couldn’t win sometimes. The reason that pushed me to get up every morning was to run to win, for me not being able to compete from the front was suffering,” said the Australian.
“I’ve missed Valentino at the front in the last two or three years, I would have loved to continue to see him fight with these guys now, the races would have been incredible with (Rossi) at a high level.”
“We had fantastic fights with Valentino in the past, a great rivalry, sometimes he won and sometimes I did, but without a doubt the best thing about fighting with him is everything I learned, both on the track and off it, driving to the media. He was very intelligent,” referring to his handling of the media situation.
Despite the rivalry and some especially rough moments, Casey is aware of the value of the time in which he competed.
“My achievements in MotoGP surely have a greater value for having competed with him, in his time. I really appreciate the rivalry that we live.”
A rivalry that reached its peak in the 2011 Jerez race, when Stoner was fighting for the World Championship and Rossi was unable to be competitive with the Ducati, despite this the Italian wanted to overtake the Honda and threw it to the ground, an incident that left a phrase for history: “Your ambition has been stronger than your talent”, the Australian released Rossi when the Italian went to apologize to the box without removing his helmet. “I didn’t take it off just in case I was really mad,” Rossi joked later.
“Thinking about that ten years later, I would surely tell him the same thing now. We had a great rivalry for years, but at that time I was looking for the championship and he was very far away, I had other things to worry about, in particular with Jorge Lorenzo, who was extremely consistent, so the reaction would have been the same, he had very tough opponents.”
“The rivalry with Rossi was very strong for good and for bad, he taught me a lot and I’m sure he taught me too. Valentino can’t without having rivalries, he liked that there were comments here and there, at times it was somewhat derogatory. But over time there is no longer resentment and a lot of respect
“You can’t race these guys and not have respect for them, for what they do, for what they accomplished. To be honest we haven’t had contact for many years, but we enjoy our rivalry and the great races.”
Neither over the years has there been a rapprochement, nor now at the time of Valentino’s withdrawal.
“I have not spoken to him, but I am surprised that he is retiring. Yes, that he will do so this year, with almost no people on the circuits, I thought that he would want to leave in a better way, but with the whole Covid situation, it is complicated. After so many years, so long without winning it’s tough,” said the Southport legend.
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