‘No decision made’ on Stoner Ducati wildcards

Double MotoGP champion Casey Stoner says that no decision has been made yet by him or the Italian factory on whether he will return to racing next season in a wildcard appearance. Speaking to Australian journalist Colin Young for MCN, the 30-year-old says that while it may yet happen, their priorities are currently elsewhere.

“Ducati want me to do wildcards and I’ve got options whenever I want, but at this point we have made no decision. I’ll see how the tests go and hopefully I can get some test time on a grippy track that’s race-ready.

“My main focus is testing and to work on the development programme to get Ducati back to winning races.”

However, the Australian is in no doubt that if he does return to the series he’ll be just as competitive as his fellow Ducati riders – especially after being able to benchmark himself last year despite his three-year absence from the top class.

“I didn’t retire because I thought I was getting slow. I retired believing I was still capable of winning the championship. I have never been worried about my speed.

“The reason I wanted to replace Dani Pedrosa at Austin was because I knew that I had the speed to do it. At the Sepang test in February I was doing times very close to Dani’s race pace.”