Valencia MotoGP: Casey Stoner sad to see team boss quit

Casey Stoner has spoke of his disappointment that factory team boss Livio Suppo has opted to quit Ducati and move to rivals HRC in a senior management role for 2010. 

Suppo’s departure from Ducati was confirmed in Valencia today with a flurry of rumours about the reasoning for his shock move to Honda.

The Italian was influential in signing Stoner at the end of 2006 after his promising rookie campaign with the LCR Honda squad. 

And Stoner refuted suggestions that his relationship with the Italian had completely deteriorated, as had been strongly rumoured during the Australian’s recent illness absence.

Stoner said: “Livio has been a big part not only in my success but also with Ducati. He has been there from the beginning of the project and he has done a fantastic job. I’ve had an excellent relationship with Livio and people tried to push us apart when I was away in Australia.

“It is just wrong and nobody understood what was happening. Livio was there for me the whole time making sure I was okay and seeing what he could do for me. It will be a big loss for the time and I wish him well in his future dealings and it would have been nice to see out my career at Ducati with him involved.”