Repsol Honda’s Team Principal Livio Suppo has strongly denied any chance of Casey Stoner making a shock return to GP racing, not even as a wild card. The two-time World Champion, who retired from racing at the end of the 2012 season, has recently tested the 2014 RC213V machine in Motegi, and that was obviously enough to spark speculation that the Australian might have had second thoughts about his retirement, something that was strongly denied by Stoner himself right after the test in Japan and is confirmed once again by the Italian boss.
Suppo and Stoner have a long history together: the former was the boss in Ducati when the latter clinched his unforgettable first world title in 2007, and then he was pretty instrumental to bring him to Repsol Honda in 2011, a season that eventually saw the Australian being crowned World Champ for the second time. Speaking to AGP Podcats, Suppo basically said there’s simply no chance of Stoner coming back to MotoGP racing, not even for a wild-card entry in his home round in Phillip Island (as strongly rumored in recent weeks). He’s just the best test rider there is, and the whole thing is not going to get any further than that. According to Australia’s Daily Telegraph, here’s what Suppo said:
“For every manufacturer, to have a fast test rider is something like a dream. It’s almost impossible to find a super-fast rider to do tests. With Casey, it was a perfect situation. Since he retired, we spoke about his dream to still ride the bike sometimes. Everybody expects this means he will come back racing, but that’s not the case. “We are more than happy to have such a strong and fast rider in testing available, (and) Casey is very good at understanding the bike and giving suggestions to the engineers. Even if he enjoyed the test, that doesn’t mean he’s thinking to do a wildcard.”
from TWOWHEELSBLOG
