Casey Stoner baffled at struggling Ducati colleagues

Casey Stoner has admitted he is baffled as to why he is the only rider capable of producing wins and podiums for Ducati.

With ten wins on his way to a dominant success in last year’s MotoGP title race, Stoner humiliated experienced riders like Loris Capirossi and Alex Barros who failed to master Ducati’s first 800cc contender.

Another batch of riders in 2008 have also failed to match Stoner’s impressive record, including world 250 champion Marco Melandri and MotoGP winner Toni Elias.

Melandri recently pleaded with Ducati engineers to build a bike specifically for him.

But Stoner, who tested Ducati’s 2009 prototype machine with a radical new carbon fibre chassis, said: “Everybody thinks this bike was built for me and it’s not true.

“Loris had many good results last year and also Alex Barros, so it’s not a one-rider bike. If someone can do it one weekend you can do it every weekend, you just need to work hard to get the setting.”

Stoner said said he was baffled at why Melandri, Elias and Sylvain Guintoli were struggling to break into the top ten, let alone fight at the front.

“I can’t understand why they are struggling so much. I know we are having a couple of problems but it is not that bad. I can still run top five every time without too much problem.

“I can’t understand the situation that is happening. They can ask for a bike that is built around them but there is not one bike out there that is built for one rider.”

Stoner conceded the Ducati was not an easy beast to tame but he added: “Maybe these riders expected to get on the bike and it would be fast and easy. This bike is not easy to ride and you have to work very, very hard with it.”

Melandri’s biggest complaint has been a lack of rear grip. But despite wholesale changes made by Ducati engineers to ease his struggle, nothing has sparked a drastic improvement in the Italian’s flagging fortunes.

When asked if he too suffered from a rear grip issue, Stoner replied: “A little problem but this is not a two second problem, this is not the problem.

“You need to go to the limit of the machine and then find the problem, not just ride around without pushing and expect to make improvements.”