Ducati and Casey Stoner part ways

Ducati and former MotoGP rider Casey Stoner have agreed to terminate their partnership at the end of this season, a link that has begun in 2016 and was valid until the end of 2018. Stoner, when asked if he would continue to work for Ducati as development rider of the MotoGP project, already hinted he didn’t want to continue, and now the parts split ways officially.

Stoner’s return to Ducati in 2016 meant that the Italian factory was able to further develop the Desmosedici GP prototype, and since the Australian rider begun working with the team, the results have improved every season to the point that the Ducati prototype is now considered to be the most balanced bike in MotoGP at the moment.

But Casey Stoner didn’t help only to evolve the MotoGP project, and he is in fact deeply linked to the latest Ducati superbike, the Panigale V4.

The knowledge Stoner has on motorcycle performance has also allowed Ducati to get his input on the development of numerous road models of the Italian range, and even though Stoner isn’t particularly fond of showing up in marketing events, there’s no doubt that the Ducati fans loved him and he was the one everybody wanted to take a photo at the World Ducati Week.

“I want to thank Ducati for the great memories and especially the support and enthusiasm of the Ducati fans for our shared passion for racing and motorcycling, I’ll always remember this”, added Casey Stoner. “Over the past three years I have really enjoyed doing my job with the test team, the engineers and technicians, as we worked towards improving the Desmosedici GP package and I sincerely want to wish the team all the very best for their future endeavours”.

There’s no word if Casey Stoner will work with another brand, but for the moment the Aussie rider is trying to get back to his full fitness after the surgery in the beginning of the year to his shoulder.