Casey Stoner has a blunt message for MotoGP riders who complain about their bike

The development race, aided by the new concessions rule, will be at the heart of this year’s MotoGP title battle.

But Casey Stoner does not want to hear riders complaining about their bike’s performance.

The two-time MotoGP champion has issued a typically forthright opinion on any rider who looks at his bike, and his team, before looking in the mirror.

“Everybody gets a little selfish in this sport,” Stoner told TNT Sports last year. “Everybody thinks about themselves.

“It’s easy to look at the next garage, some riders who are pushing each other forward.

“It’s easy to look and say ‘they have got something that we don’t’.

“It was easy for Ducati and Honda to look at Yamaha, at the time, who had a buttery-smooth bike that looked beautiful to ride. But it had its problems.

“We all had our pros and cons to everything. It was part of it.

“It’s something in your mind. You need to look at yourself. Take pride out of it. Say ‘I can fix a lot, in me, without looking at the bike’.

“The riders sometimes get too caught up in ‘change the bike to suit me’.

“Sometimes it’s just - work on yourself a little more.”

Stoner won his two MotoGP championships with different manufacturers, Ducati and Honda.

It took Ducati 15 years after his 2007 glory to replicate it, a period which included the big-money arrivals of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo who both fell short.

Honda, meanwhile, must start their own rehabilitation immediately after losing star rider Marc Marquez in the wake of a particularly horrible season.

Luca Marini steps into Marquez’s shoes at Repsol Honda, a rider feted for his data-driven approach and his potential to speed up development of the bike.

The concessions rule should aid Honda and Yamaha who will benefit the most from extra developmental perks.

But Stoner clearly wants to see the riders do their part on-track, too…