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Casey Stoner's Mission at HRC Is to Test the Bikes Pedrosa and Marquez Don't Have the Time for

Dorna Sports has interviewed Casey Stoner after the three test days he had with HRC at Sepang before the start of the official 2015 initial testing session, and tried to find out more from the Australian rider himself. Even though Stoner was not that eager to unveil too many details, we have been able to find out more about his mission as a Honda Racing Corporation test rider.
Casey Stoner 1 photo
Photo: motogp.com
For starters, he admitted that the tests he had were comparative ones, with both the 2014 and 2015 versions of the RC213V machines. Even better, more versions of the 2015 prototypes have been present at Sepang, for back-to-back comparisons whose final goal was to learn which solutions seem to work better for the new bike.

As dreamy as it may sound, HRC and Stoner have been trying to determine whether they could find something “ideal” to be used as a basis for future development. Stoner says that he rides both Marc Marquez’ and Dani Pedrosa’s bikes in order to provide feedback according to his own experience. However, engineers will not touch the chassis settings for these two machines.

No chassis set-ups for Stoner

HRC does not allow chassis set-ups for the two bikes which will be operated by the works riders. Each of them has his own preferences and they are usually much different. Stoner must adapt to each of the bikes he is riding.

"I basically ride either of their bikes. I just have to adapt to Marc’s bike and chassis and then to Dani’s. Then they’ve got different variations to try and see if they can find something in the middle that is going to be the ideal thing, but generally one guy will always prefer one thing and another guy will prefer another. I always generally prefer one or the other’s bikes a little better but we don’t go chasing set-ups, there is no point doing that," added he.

Honda might even ask him to help with the development of the next year bike, because the two riders only have a limited amount of time they can spend with all the new parts being implemented. This is the part where Stoner’s expertise becomes really important.

"I’m not sure if at the next test it will be continuing on this year’s bike and just changing a few things to make sure that they can clinch the championship, or maybe they will have me moving onto next year’s bike. Dani and Marc don’t really have the time to test so many components especially when they are trying to win a championship. They can’t test the next year’s bike so often."

The first official test at Sepang starts tomorrow (4 February). Check back with us for more info and lap times from Malaysia.
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