When the legendary Australian stepped in to replace the injured Davide Giugliano in the Ducati World Superbike team, fans were expecting him to immediately be on the podium and challenging for the win. The comparison with the return of Troy Bayliss is easily drawn.
"We are sorry for the fans, who would have loved to see Casey back, but overall, we think this is the right choice," Suppo added. Fans would expect Stoner to be battling at the front straight away, ignoring the disadvantages he had from a lack of testing and racing. "Overall, we believe that a comeback of Casey in MotoGP would be something to properly prepare, as the expectation would be huge," Suppo said. Suppo cited the lack of preparation, and the undoubted weight of expectation from the fans as factors in the decision. He has also had only very limited testing, having spent three days on the factory Honda RC213V ahead of the first Sepang test, while the rest of the MotoGP grid has had eight days of full testing plus the first round of racing at Qatar. The Australian has never raced at either Austin or Termas de Rio Hondo, the two tracks having been added to the MotoGP calendar after Stoner retired from MotoGP.
But Stoner would have faced major challenges replacing Pedrosa for the next two MotoGP rounds.
"We spoke about the possibility for Casey to replace Dani," Suppo admitted. It was decided that Hiroshi Aoyama would be a better choice of replacement in the circumstances.Īsked via email by whether Honda had had discussions with Stoner over replacing Pedrosa, Repsol Honda team principal Livio Suppo confirmed that they had. In the end, it was decided that a return would not be possible at such short notice. The Australian had discussions with HRC about stepping in to take Pedrosa's place during his absence. Casey Stoner was a candidate to replace the injured Dani Pedrosa.
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