Casey Stoner not expecting major GP9 tweaks

Former world champion Casey Stoner has denied his factory Ducati GP9 is about to receive a major overhaul to bolster the Aussie’s hopes of recapturing the MotoGP world title in 2009.

Stoner is currently just one point behind Jorge Lorenzo in the MotoGP title race but he’s only scored one podium since his dominant victory in the season’s opening race in Qatar.

Ducati got triple World Superbike champion Troy Bayliss to test a GP9 in Mugello earlier this month, while he also evaluated some development parts for next year’s GP10.

But the 23-year-old reckons he’s not anticipating any significant changes to his bike in the coming weeks.

It was a year ago nearly that Stoner made his debut on Ducati’s radical carbon fibre chassis in Catalunya, with Bologna engineers needing the 2007 world champion’s feedback.

But Stoner said: “Unless we have got a complete change and its something that will be a big change for next year then normally we won’t see it until the end of the year.

“It was strange for us to test the GP9 in Barcelona last year. The only reason we did was because of the carbon fibre chassis and we had to be sure that it was the right direction before they started to produce it.

“I don’t think we will see anything new until the end of the year. With the financial crisis as it is now it is not easy to produce things and throw them out there for a small company like Ducati.

“I believe that the bike we have got now is good enough to win. We just need to give it a few tweaks.”