Stoner talks big rear steps, front tyre woes

Reigning MotoGP champion Casey Stoner believes he and Honda can see the light at the end of the tunnel regarding the long-running rear chatter problems with the RC213V.

However the blanket introduction of the new specification Bridgestone front tyre from this weekend means he and factory Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa now have front chatter to fix.

Australian Stoner, who starts the British MotoGP 20-points behind Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo, began with the positives - saying that 'big progress' had been made during the post-race Catalunya test.

"Our whole objective at the test was just to fix the rear chatter," Stoner explained.

"We think we've reduced it quite substantially and, with the improvement we've made, we also understand the direction we need to go in. I'm pretty sure we can reduce all of it this weekend.

"We've got to be positive. We're coming to a new track and if we get some dry sessions we'll try and understand it further. But we've been getting chatter in the wet as well, so hopefully it'll be reduced in the wet as well.

"We made some big steps in Barcelona so we're pretty happy with that," concluded Stoner, who will retire at the end of 2012.

But while the rear chatter finally looks to be improving, Stoner and Pedrosa now have the new specification Bridgestone front tyre to adapt to.

The new spec had been an additional option at previous rounds, but takes over as standard from Silverstone. Unlike Stoner and Pedrosa, most riders prefer the new tyre, including Yamaha's title leader Jorge Lorenzo.

And the bad news for the Repsol riders is that the new, softer, tyre causes chatter in the front.

"I didn't really want to mention it [the front chatter] because people will think we are just complaining about chatter and finding excuses," replied Stoner, when asked about the front tyre issues

"But yeah, unfortunately, we made big progress with the rear and then as soon as we [used] the new front tyre - as I knew already from winter testing - immediately we had the front chatter.

"Now we've got one [area of chatter] under control so hopefully it'll be easier to understand and fix the front. When you've got both [front and rear chatter] happening at the same time it can be complicated."

Stoner, who won last year's wet Silverstone race stated that there is nothing better about the new tyre from his perspective.

Even Pedrosa, known for choosing his words carefully, had been publicly critical of the tyre change, calling it 'unsafe and unfair to Honda'.

"I haven't spoken to Dani about it, but we knew from when we first tested those tyres that it just wasn't going to work with our bike," said Stoner. "Things weren't good. We told Bridgestone, everybody from the beginning. But they didn't seem to care.

"A few other people like it and obviously the CRTs seem to enjoy it more, for exactly the reasons that we don't enjoy it. It is softer in the casing. It squishes a lot more, there's a lot more movement in the middle of the corner and on the brakes. We just don't find anything good about it.

"I did expect the comments from Dani. Even if he didn't complain about it in the past it was just a matter of time. The more time you spend on the tyre. I don't think I'll be the only one complaining as the season goes on. We'll just have to try to work around it if we can."