Racing: Stoner fit and ready

Casey Stoner is looking forward to the new MotoGP season which starts at Losail, Qatar in April, and says he feels in better condition than he has done for the past three years.

The Australian's well documented fitness problems which led to a three-race break in the 2009 world championship are now well and truly behind him, as he proved with a strong finish to the campaign.

"We had a good start to the season, and midway through when the bike was working flawlessly I started having problems myself," said Stoner at the Wrooom 2010 event in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy. "We saw as many doctors as we could but there were no answers, so everyone started pointing at my head and saying it was a mental problem.

"I knew better; I'm not going to have a mental breakdown in the middle of the season when everything's going well. We figured it out over the two-month break and came back strong, and it was nice to come back and get a few good results before the end of the season."

Stoner has so far enjoyed an uninterrupted early pre-season training program this time around, and is feeling the benefits.

"I'm feeling better than I have in the last three years," he said. "My training levels have increased dramatically and my fitness is a lot higher than ever, and it feels easier. We're really looking forward to this year and are going out to win the championship.

"I'm looking forward to this year. It is my first off-season in the past three years where I haven't had any kind of injury or operation, so it's been good to train throughout.

"At the last test in Valencia we tried the new engine configuration, and really loved it. We had lots more traction and were able to do more with the bike. We think that'll help us on the track and make the bike more balanced throughout the season. We still have a lot of things to test before the first race, but we're confident we can take the fight a little further along the season."

With a clear target of a second world championship title, Stoner sees reigning MotoGP Champion Valentino Rossi as the main obstacle to his goal.

"Obviously Valentino's the one to beat, he's won the championship the last two years in a row now," said Stoner, who was the last rider before Rossi to take the title when he won it in 2007. "I think was a big achievement for us last year to be within striking distance of Jorge in the last race (of 2009), and unfortunately not even start it.

"Both riders have their strong points. Sometimes Valentino can be very fast in a weekend and struggle in the race a little bit. Other times you think he's struggling and in the race he will do very well. Jorge is sometimes a little easier to understand. When things aren't going well for him throughout a weekend it normally doesn't improve for the race. He's often very strong throughout the weekend and that continues into the race. They're both very different and that's how you have to approach them."

Meanwhile, the general manager of Ducati Motor has joined Stoner and his American team-mate Nicky Hayden to unveil the new big-bang Desmosedici GP10 against the dramatic backdrop of the Dolomites -- recently added by UNESCO to their World Natural Heritage list.

"The main changes to the bike are based on the rule changes, so the major part of the work was done precisely to make it perform better using only six engines for the entire championship," explained Claudio Domenicali. "It's a very important difference, because we were used to using more-or-less one engine per race, so to switch from 18 engines to six is a very important adjustment. All of the main parts were redesigned -- pistons, rods, crankshaft, the basics. It's an engine with which our main objective was to minimise the loss of power to increase durability."

Domenicali continued: "The second big news isn't related to the rules, but to our attempt to make the bike more rideable. This has to do with the firing order. We have a motor that, since the switch to 800cc, utilised a screamer set-up.

"This has permitted us to have maximum power, which was very important and was probably fundamental with the results that we've had in 2007, 2008 and 2009, but at a certain point, we began to wonder whether it could be worthwhile to re-test a way that we'd already followed in the past.

"The last 1000cc motors that we made in 2005 and 2006 used a big-bang firing order, and this gave us important rideability. We re-tested that way, first trying it on the dyno, then with Vittoriano Guareschi in his previous role as test rider and then with Nicky and Casey."

"We think we have a bike for 2010 with better traction, and that therefore makes it easier for us to find a good set-up. Another part of the work was dedicated to the chassis. In the pursuit of ease of use, we've worked to eliminate the bike's squatting, which is why the entire rear portion of the bike was redesigned.

"This bike has a rear structure that carries the rider -- which we call the seat support -- and that also supports the swingarm. That part was redesigned to have six mounting points instead of four; this makes the bike more rigid in a way and it guarantees better rideability and improved rigidity. With respect to the bike we introduced last year, this bike is also aesthetically different because of the redesigned fairing but we already saw that at Estoril."

Desmosedici GP10 specifications
Engine: Liquid-cooled, 90 degree V4 four-stroke, desmodromic DOHC, four valves per cylinder.
Capacity: 799cc
Maximum power: more than 200hp
Maximum speed: in excess of 310km/h
Transmission: Six-speed cassette-type gearbox, with alternative gear ratios available. Dry multiplate slipper clutch. Chain final drive.
Fuel system: Indirect Magneti Marelli electronic injection, four throttle bodies with injectors above butterfly valves. Throttles operated by EVO TCF (Throttle Control & Feedback) system.
Fuel:  Shell Racing V-Power
Lubricant: Shell Advance Ultra 4
Ignition: Magneti Marelli
Exhaust: Termignoni
Final Drive: Regina Chain
Suspension: Öhlins upside-down 48mm front forks and Öhlins rear shock absorber, adjustable for preload, compression and rebound damping.
Tyres:  Bridgestone 16.5-inch front and rear
Brakes: Brembo, two 320mm carbon front discs with four-piston calipers. Single stainless-steel rear disc with twin-piston calipers.
Dry weight: 150kg