Casey Stoners new racing career post motogp

[coaster]

Casey Stoner has made a good impression testing a v8 supercar in Australia.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/motor-sport ... MlkOeKljq4

I wish him all the best!

[Cam]

With Nissan and Mercedes joining the V8 Supercar series, one now wonders how far away Honda might be from being interested. There's been many reports stating that Honda will introduce a V8 in 2015 - more than likely for the Accura range. Certainly Stoner is well liked at Honda and is a WC and if he does run for a season or two in V8's and does ok... who knows... the pieces all seem to fit rather nicely.

[Websta]

Considering how Villenueve didn't fare very well despite his recent NASCAR experience (and obviously his extensive car racing career), I am concerned that Stoner will be dead last for a long time. The V8 field is incredibly close, it isn't uncommon for the entire field to be spread by only 1 and a bit seconds in qualifying.

[Cam]

You may be right, although take heed, comparing Stoner to Villenueve is un-Australian and riots have been caused from lesser words.

Wayne Gardner, the 1987 500cc WC, raced in the supercar series from 1993-2002. Didn't do so well. Think the term 'Captain Chaos' was coined once or twice. Doohan never tried. Didn't need too. Why? Doohan was old when he retired, so was Gardner and so is Villenueve. They left the best parts of their career behind them. Gardner and Villenuve didn't get that when they tried V8s - Villenueve still doesn't.

Stoner is in his prime. He's young, fast, fearless and simply will not stop pushing or ever settle for second - and he'll do it with a broken foot and a couple of panadol. I can assure you most of the drivers in the current V8 series don't have half as much moxy. Whether Stoner will ever a win a championship, who knows, but I can't wait to see him drive and bring that same attitude that saw him tame some of the wildest machines this planet has ever been graced with.

[Websta]

I dunno, Villenueve is a World Champ - even if he wasn't an elite driver, he was at least a decent one. That alone puts him pretty far ahead of most of the V8 drivers in terms of raw talent. And despite his past experiences in the series and his NASCAR experience, he wasn't able to hold a candle to the V8 back markers (if memory serves) when he was filling in for the injured driver. Hopefully I haven't missed a detail or misremembered this.

With that in mind, I just wonder how long it would take for Stoner to get up to speed if a racer like Villenueve wasn't there yet after all that. After a season or so I could see Stoner mixing it up near the pointy end. He has too much talent to not get there. If he was on the pace after just a few races, I would be thoroughly impressed. There is no question that he is bursting at the seams with talent and that if he did enter the series, he would eventually get comfortable in the car and would probably challenge for some race wins. I'd be very interested to see what sort of success he could achieve, but I think he would need to be in the series for quite a while first.

Then again, Dovi and Rossi are pretty hot at rally racing so maybe these MotoGP riders are more adaptable than I give them credit

[Cam]

Villenueve was a WC in 1997, some 15 years ago. He's also 41 years old.

Stoner was a WC in 2011, a year ago. He's also 27 years old.

There's no way a 41 year old former (15 years ago) F1 WC is so far ahead of most of the V8 drivers in raw talent. That's just wrong. Talent goes. It does not stay with you for ever. Passion, reflexes, strength, stamina, desire - all these things have a finite life.

Now if Webber was going to V8s, well that would be a good comparison to Stoner.

Rossi is a good point you made. Didn't he tinker with both rally and F1 at some stage? Here's the report on how Rossi did - impressive!

The 30 year-old, who last tested for the Italian team at their test circuit at Mugello in November 2008, clocked a best lap of 1m 21.900s towards the end of the day’s running. With his time just over two tenths down on Kimi Raikkonen’s 2008 lap record of 1m 21.670s, Rossi was delighted with his pace.

[Websta]

Yeah I just checked Villenueve's recent racing record and he's done much less than I thought. Since leaving F1, he hasn't been doing much racing. He only competed in 9 nationwide series NASCAR races (all road course races) in the last 5 years, and although he had 3 thirds, a fourth, a sixth and an eighth, NASCAR nationwide races are not exactly DTM-calibre. So I have overestimated his current ability!

Some of the international drivers looked pretty decent at the Gold Coast event as well so there's that going in Stoner's favour as well. I guess we will see (if he does enter the series).



Rossi was on the 2009 slicks in that Ferrari test so his relative pace to Raikkonen is misleading (unless Raikkonen's record was set on slicks?), but his pace was still very impressive, as impressive as or even more so than Sebastian Loeb's RBR test.

[Cam]

yep - now we're talking Rossi and Loeb, now we're talking talent and those boys can certainly mix it any series I think. Stoner is in that class too.

Didn't think about the tyres for Rossi. Be good to figure that one out as that would truly be an amazing test. Any ideas why he never went ahead?

[Websta]

It's unfortunate that Loeb was a bit too old in 2008/9 when he was discussing a switch to circuit racing, but then again his 4 WRC titles since then have made his career truly unbelievable. It would be nice to see him at LeMans again though.

I agree as well - all three have the talent to win in any series, given the time to acclimatise. I wonder how many years of open wheel racing you really need before you make it to F1. Bruno Senna made the transition after 5 years (could have been 4 years though), although that was aided by sponsorship. He is a good example because of his hiatus from motor sport after the death of Ayrton, so if he could do it in 4 years, a seasoned MotoGp superstar could probably do something similar. Marc Marquez would probably be the best positioned rider to do it currently and he is also a massive talent. It's just a very risky career move given the money they make in MotoGp and their legacy that would be in jeopardy should they fail on 4 wheels.

[coaster]

Now if Webber was going to V8s, well that would be a good comparison to Stoner.

Bring it on!

[Cam]

Webber has been so quiet about any post F1 career, probably rightly so, seeing as Marko has eyes on him.

Stoner doing a full year in the V8 development series is a credit to him. He could've bought into the main game and gone racing, but decided to 'cut his teeth', so to speak. That's smart. Interesting he's been rumoured to be having additional secret testing and driving training as well. Certainly his 100% commitment he brought to MotoGP seems to still be with him. With that attitude and his god given natural talent he should do well.

[coaster]

He's getting his baptism of fire this weekend, at Adelaides old F1 circuit. Some areas are a 'concrete canyon' which tests even the most experienced drivers.

[seventhsin]

Yeah he qualified 12th in the second tier series.
Up to 9th in race one then back to 11th.
Kissed a wall and suffered a puncture.

Starts from the rear of the field for race2 today.

[Cam]

Started 30th. Finished 14th. Has shown he can race and overtake. His team manager stated he was lapping the same times as Craig Lowndes last year in testing. Early days yet, although quite promising.

[Pierce89]

Started 30th. Finished 14th. Has shown he can race and overtake. His team manager stated he was lapping the same times as Craig Lowndes last year in testing. Early days yet, although quite promising.

Was there ever any doubt with someone so talented?