MotoGP legend Casey Stoner talks about his love for F1 and admiration for racing drivers

Former MotoGP star Casey Stoner has opened up about his love for Formula 1 and his admiration for racing drivers, whom he described as “freaking phenomenally talented”.

Stoner made a name for himself in motorcycle racing, winning MotoGP titles for both Ducati and Honda before retiring at the age of just 26.

He is regarded as one of the all-time greats in MotoGP, particularly for delivering Ducati a world title at a time when it was not counted in the same leagues as its Japanese rivals Honda and Yamaha.

But while Stoner’s first love has always been motorcycle racing, he also enjoys four-wheel racing and attends F1 races on a semi-regular basis.

While revealing that it was hard for him to follow F1 in his early years in Australia, a trip to the Monaco GP in 2006 changed his perception of the series.

“I went to my first F1 race in ‘06 in Monaco – I was invited there,” Stoner revealed in an interview with F1’s official site.

“Lewis Hamilton was racing in GP2, won the race that day and I got to meet a few of the F1 guys and really see what F1 was.

“I finally got to see how amazing the cars were, and that's when I started being a lot more interested in it and developing far more knowledge about what goes on rather than just what you see on TV – it sort of changed my perspective on the whole thing.”

Stoner said a number of F1 stars caught his attention in the last 20 years, including Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.

“Of course, we all saw Michael do what he did,” he said. “I followed Lewis very closely from around ‘06 onwards, you've got talent like Kimi Raikkonen in the car – you've got all these freaking phenomenally talented drivers.

“Lewis coming through, doing what he did, was phenomenal. Fernando Alonso back in the day and all the way through has been incredible, and now we've got Max Verstappen stepping up and being the next standout.

“I think there’s a group of four or five drivers, including guys like Seb Vettel, that all showed phenomenal and outstanding skills – but it would be only possible to really define them if they were in the same car at the same time, same moment, so it's very difficult for me to say one person.”

Stoner added he enjoyed the sound of V10 engines, which were last used in F1 in 2005. 

The series’ stakeholders are currently discussing the prospect of bringing back V10 engines, running on sustainable fuels, in the mid-to-long term future.

“As for my favourite F1 car, I would say definitely a V10," he said. "Just hearing those things was always a pleasure and even if, for whatever reason, the racing wasn't amazing, just listening to it would make your day.”

Referring to the chrome-liveried McLaren cars from the late 2000s and early 2010s, he added: “I would say the car that blew me away was at that first F1 race I went to – the McLaren with the Vodafone livery, chrome finish. It was just ridiculous.

“You just never expected a car to be painted so beautifully and it was just an absolute mirror the whole time. That was pretty incredible to see up close. You could see it on TV, but never, ever did it do it justice until you saw it in the flesh and realised how incredible it was.”