Casey Stoner (Photo: HRC)

Since Bridgestone took over as sole tire supplier, success in MotoGP has come to depend greatly on how well a bike can utilize the performance of the tires. Changing the tire specs mid-season has a radical impact on how you build the bike.

Traditionally, Hondas have not been famous for their cornering - it’s been the horsepower we get from our engines that makes us competitive. But when Bridgestone became sole supplier, the focus shifted greatly to getting all the performance you could out of the tires. In other words, we now need to build the bike to match the tires. How will the bike flex? How will tire performance degrade as the tires wear? So naturally a change in the tires mid-season now requires us to make major modifications. We could continue using the old hard construction front tires in the first part of the season, until Round Five in Catalunya, but from the England GP onward everyone had to switch to the new soft construction front tires. By Round Seven in Holland we had managed to put together a new frame prototype adapted to the new tire, and Dani liked the new bike as soon as he started using it. We tried out the new engine in this new frame at the test after Round Nine in Italy, in effect a practical test of the 2013 prototype. Dani was most impressed and switched to this new machine from Laguna Seca (Round 10). Casey also liked the new engine, but didn’t feel that the new frame changed things much, so he kept using the old frame with the new engine fitted. We introduced the 2013 design mid way through the season in order to improve stability during deceleration through changes to the engine, and to improve cornering with the new chassis. As you can see, in today’s MotoGP, building the bike to match the tires is a key factor.

Building the bike to match the tires. Speaking as a bike manufacturer, tell us what that involves.

I have no real problem with the present system of a single tire manufacturer for MotoGP. When everyone races on the same tires, the tires become purely an engineering matter. On top of that, each rider has his likes and dislikes when it comes to tires. Building bikes to meet different riders’ preferences is a new kind of challenge, and of course we welcome new challenges. From that point of view in fact, I have to say we have learned a lot since Bridgestone became sole supplier. Factory teams have the accumulated experience that lets them take on this kind of challenge, but the CRT teams don’t have that ability. When we had the multiple tire supplier system, it was possible to construct tires to exactly match each bike with each rider, and the tire could compensate for other factors. This meant that we had times when satellite team riders beat the factory riders, but that no longer applies under the sole supplier system - when things are good, they’re good for everyone; when they’re bad, everyone suffers the same. Under such equal conditions, you rarely get surprise results. With a single supplier, the factory teams are always very strong since they can apply their past experience, and this leaves little chance of winning for the non-factory riders and teams. For example, this season the podium was almost monopolised by just three riders: Dani, Casey and Jorge. There was no real chance of any other rider winning a race. This is why, from a personal standpoint, I prefer multiple tire suppliers. It simply makes the races more exciting, and I think it is better for the whole grand prix world.

Casey Stoner retired at the end of this season. Tell us some of the details of that, and what you thought of his racing in his final year.

Casey told us last year that he was thinking to retire at the end of 2012. It was after he won the Australian GP to secure the championship. He still had one more year to run on his contract with us, so he said he would ride for Honda in 2012, but it was quite a shock to hear he wanted to retire. Ever since the season began, he kept saying he wanted to make his decision public. Naturally, we really wanted him to continue with us and repeatedly tried to persuade him to reconsider, but Casey’s mind was made up. It was at Round Four in France that he finally got his way and announced his plans during the Thursday Press Conference. I was OK with that, since I thought it would motivate him to win his final championship and retire in a blaze of glory. Unfortunately it didn't turn out like that, but he still had a great final season.

I’m sure you must have been disappointed that you couldn’t persuade Casey to change his mind and stay in MotoGP.

Casey is a rider I really love. I couldn’t imagine anything better than racing with him. Casey is fast. Really fast. We were constantly shocked that the bikes we had made could go so fast when Casey was in the saddle. When Casey is confident and relaxed about his riding, there is nobody in MotoGP who can come close. After winning the Australian GP this year for the sixth consecutive time, his comment was just that he would have been even faster if he hadn’t still been suffering from an injured ankle. However fast he rides, he’s still always aiming to go faster. We held a farewell party for him on the Monday night after the Valencia GP. After the party was over, the two of us stayed on, chatting, and I found I couldn’t control my tears. I really felt so sad about him leaving MotoGP. The following day I was asked by a number of Casey’s friends what I said to him that night. When I asked why they wanted to know, they said that Casey, who had never wavered until then in his decision to retire, had said “maybe after all I should keep on racing…” Right from the first day Casey came to ride for Repsol Honda, pretty much every day he came up with something new that astonished us. I don’t know of any other rider that is such fun to work with. I hope he quickly recovers from his injury, and if he ever decides to come back he will find a warm welcome waiting. I told him that’s always on offer.