Casey Stoner: Rossi's potential hard to understand

Casey Stoner reckons it is too difficult to understand Valentino Rossi’s true potential at Ducati while the Italian is still recovering from winter surgery on his right shoulder.

Stoner, who will ride for the Repsol Honda squad in 2011 after quitting Ducati, said judgements on Rossi’s progress with the new GP11 were hard to make while the 31-year-old works his way back to full fitness.

Rossi is still recovering from major surgery on his right shoulder that he needed in mid-November after a motocross training accident almost a year ago.

The nine-times world champion finished last week’s Sepang test in Malaysia with the 11th fastest time but Stoner refused to read too much into Rossi’s struggle to break into the top ten.

The Aussie, who was third fastest overall behind Marco Simoncelli and Dani Pedrosa, said: “I understand how bad his shoulder is because more or less I had the same surgery on my shoulder in 2006 before the start of the season, so I know how big the problem can be.   It was the same tendon and Valentino’s was worse than mine. But until he feels 100 per cent fit it is going to be difficult to understand where he is at with the bike.”