According to former crew chief Cristian Gabarrini, Stoner was able to manage his MotoGP-winning Ducati’s throttle and fuel consumption better than the electronics available in 2007. Stoner won the MotoGP world title in 2007.
Gabarrini worked with Stoner at Honda when he won his second MotoGP world title in 2011 and served as crew chief for the two riders who won MotoGP world titles for Ducati: Francesco Bagnaia this year and Stoner in 2007.
Gabarrini, who worked with Bagnaia since his promotion to the factory squad in 2021 and returned to Ducati in 2018 as Jorge Lorenzo’s crew chief, helped Bagnaia win the world title this year after overcoming a 91-point deficit to Fabio Quartararo.
When asked about the differences between Stoner and Bagnaia, Gabarrini said that it’s hard to compare riders from different eras, but he did talk about how difficult it was for the Australian to control the Desmosedici GP7 at the beginning of the 800cc era.
Gabarrini also mentioned that the new rules made fuel tanks smaller—from 22 liters to 21 liters—making efficiency and throttle control more important.
We had to reduce our reliance on electronics because they were not as advanced as they are today;”Remove electronics,” Gabarrini told Motorsport.com, referring to Stoner’s precise throttle control, which at the time was more effective than the electronics.
A Honda crew member who worked with Stoner when he made the move in 2011 confirmed the same understanding: Casey asked Honda to give him most of the control over the throttle and how it communicated with the engine when he arrived.
He was more effective than electronics at the time because he cut earlier with acceleration.
When the fuel tank capacity was reduced in 2007, Gabarrini immediately gave Stoner a performance advantage over his rivals by reducing his throttle control.
“Despite having a powerful engine, the 2007 Ducati was an extreme motorcycle that was almost unrideable.
He elaborated, “That engine consumed a lot of fuel because it had a wild thirst for fuel.”
“Ducati is now one of the best bikes on the grid because engine management has been fine-tuned over time,”