By Matthew BirtMotoGP world championship leader Casey Stoner fears the switch to a 1000cc format for 2012 will not increase overtaking and make racing a much more exciting spectacle than the current 800cc bikes.
With more horsepower and more torque available with the new generation 1000cc machines, fans are hoping more overtaking opportunities will arise.
But Repsol Honda rider Stoner, who heads into this weekend’s German MotoGP round at Sachsenring holding a 19-point lead over Jorge Lorenzo, said: "I think it’s not the bikes that are reducing the passing, I think it’s just become such a professional sport that riders don’t make mistakes like they used to. Everyone has to train their butts off now just to ride these bikes. In the past, if you go back long enough, people were smoking before they got on the grid and they weren’t tired at the end of the race."
"These bikes physically take a lot more out of you. And I think the level of rider, in comparison with another era, has just picked up, because everyone knows what you need to do now. And so you’re not seeing people run wide and other people duck up in the inside. They’re making the line, they’re hitting their points, and they’re not having the problems like they used to. So, I don’t really think it’s going to change a lot. Even Dani (Pedrosa) on the same bike as me is able to out-accelerate me just because of the way he rides. So that strength is his. But then he’s got some weaknesses in his way of riding.
"So there's a lot of different ways to ride, different techniques to use, but I think racing in general was always going to develop and go in this direction. Even in motocross, you're struggling to see people pass each other any more. There seems to be one line in motocross. Everyone's getting it that right. You have to go out on a limb to pass and do something and take a line that no one else can do or hasn't tried or is unexpected. But it’s a big risk.
"It's the same in MotoGP. You have to take a big risk to get past now, because motorsport has just gone that little bit further. The way people ride has become that more developed that I think it’s just the way to the future. Younger kids than us will come through and do stuff that we hadn’t even dreamed of, so it's going to be the same sort of thing."
Source: http://www.motorcyclenews.com