Misano MotoGP: Casey Stoner undaunted by winless run

Casey Stoner reckons his failure to win a MotoGP race in 2010 has not become a massively frustrating situation.

The Australian last won a premier class race last October in Malaysia and he hasn’t looked like seriously contending for a victory since the opening race of the season in Qatar back in April.

The 2007 world champion crashed out of the lead in Doha and he’s spent the entire season trying to get on top of a front-end problem that also saw him crash out in Le Mans and Indianapolis.

But Stoner said his winless streak was not becoming a source of agitation and he said: “When I get really angry it’s either something that’s definitely wrong or with myself because I’ve not been performing.

“This year I’ve been happy with the way I’m riding. I can’t be disappointed with that. I can be disappointed with my results and that’s why I want to take a few more risks with the set-up. But I can’t get worked up about it and I just got to forget about this year unless we can find a bit more speed.

“It has been a difficult season and that’s about it. I can’t seem to get anymore out of the bike or myself. I’m not getting desperate because I’m happy with my performances.

“Things aren’t constantly going wrong but we haven’t got the speed, simple as that. I’m riding my butt off and we just need to try and get some solutions to improve the results. If we haven’t found anything by now I doubt we will.

“Normally at the start of the season we struggle and then get the bike working well but we haven’t been able to improve it this season. We’ve got to keep fighting and keep working to see if we can find a bit more speed and confidence.

“I’ve got no complaints and no excuses; I just haven’t had the speed. I’m leaving nothing on the track but it hasn’t worked out for us. Everybody has been working hard but we can’t do anymore at the moment.”

Stoner ran a new set of 2011 spec Ohlins front forks in Indianapolis last weekend but crashed out while chasing reigning world champion Valentino Rossi.

The forks are the third set used by the 24-year-old this season but he will continue with the 2011 spec at Misano this weekend.

Stoner, who has claimed five podium finishes in 2010, said: “We’re going to keep trying with these forks and try and get it working. On a bumpy track they definitely helped so we’re going to see if we can come up with something for this weekend.

“We’ll back-to-back them this weekend as well with the 2009 forks. I went into Indy knowing it was a risk. I’d had a lot of front-end losses in qualifying and in the race the bike felt better.

“But in such a long corner again we’re not pushing the front and it decided to go. I’m not blaming anything other than a mishap. But we’ll try again this weekend with some other set-up options to see if we can find a direction.”