Casey Stoner he has always been a particularly direct driver. The Australian, the only centaur in modern MotoGP together with Valentino Rossi to have been able to win world titles with two different manufacturers – Ducati and Honda -, has always shown himself ready to fight the battles he thought were right. Whether it was to antagonize the Doctor himself in the period of his heyday or to independently choose to hang his helmet on a nail when he was only 27 years old, despite everyone pushing him to continue competing. Now the former Ducati driver, who at the end of the 2021 season had reappeared in the MotoGP paddock for two races, acting as an ‘improvised coach’ for Pecco Bagnaia and Jack Miller, has revealed further details about his farewell to racing.
A choice, explained Stoner in an interesting interview with the podcast Gypsy Taleslinked above all to one state of anxiety that haunted him on race weekends. “I was recently diagnosed with anxiety – Stoner said – at the time (when he was racing in MotoGP, ed) I didn’t know it existed. I thought it was stress and of course I was also convinced that everyone was stressed in one way or another. For most of my career, certainly up to the last two years in MotoGP, the better the weekend went, the more I wanted to die“revealed the legendary # 27.
A shocking thought, connected with the idea of being at the top of a ‘media circus’ linked to the races that Stoner has never been able to manage, as has happened to his other colleagues more successful than him: above all Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez. “It wasn’t easy to understand why dealing with pressure was more difficult for me than for others. There are people, like Marc Márquez and Valentino Rossi, who are not affected by it. It would have been so much easier if I had been aware of everything that was happening to me – Stoner explained again – because I would have been able to handle it better. I’ve never been comfortable with the press, around people. I was sick like a dog, I didn’t want to run. I felt a lot of pressure from the team – concluded the Australian – when you are the number one driver and everyone expects you to win, it can affect you, like it did to me“.
#MotoGP #Stoners #anxiety #wanted #die #FormulaPassionit