Interview with Mick Doohan

A six-time winner at the Italian track, Doohan saw on Sunday how Valentino Rossi equalled his number of wins there, while also scoring his 95th podium, the same amount the Australian achieved during his career.

Autosport.com caught up with Doohan about this year's championship fight between Rossi and fellow Aussie Casey Stoner, about the financial state of MotoGP and about the new rules.

Q. Have you been impressed by the change in Casey's attitude? Or is it the bike, the tyres and the team? Has he had a transformation?

Mick Doohan: I think it's more of an evolution than a transformation. He's always been quick, he's won races before. I think just the combination of the Bridgestone and the Ducati has worked well with his style, and it's obviously given him enough feedback so that he doesn't have to push it beyond the limit to see if that's the absolute limit.

It's obviously a very confident bike to ride. I think you can also see that with people like (Alex) Barros, who has always been that type of rider but is also having decent results. Casey's definitely a world-class rider and the bike's helped him achieve that.

Q. Do you see some similarities between Stoner's speed and aggressiveness, and yourself at that age?

MD: I've honestly never really looked at it like that. He's doing his own thing and he's doing what's working. The guy's getting out there and winning races in the way that you need to win it - just getting out there and controlling the race, and not getting too panicked out at this stage.

It's still early in the season, you know. I hope he can maintain his momentum and I hope he can continue to use his head like he's doing, because he's definitely making it look easy and giving some worrying thoughts to the other guys. Really, other than that, it's hard to compare him to me, or compare him to Valentino (Rossi), or compare him to anyone. Everyone's different.

But to win races, at the end of the day, it's all the same. It's all about being consistently quick and putting it together the best way you can. Normally the symptoms are all the same: get out there, be cautious for the first lap or two, and then make a challenge for it.

Q. You made winning races look easy, but it wasn't.

MD: It's never easy to win races, or everyone would be doing it every weekend... But generally the guys who are winning look like they're comfortable because everything's working. They're confident, the bike's working well, so everything's gelling together and the flow is good.

Whereas if the bike's not working or you're trying too hard, or if you're trying to compensate, everything's erratic. So generally the guys who are quick don't actually look that quick.

Q. Valentino has made a few complaints about the current tyre rules. What's your view on the 31 tyres per weekend limit?

MD: Well, at the end of the day, it's the same for everybody. I can't really comment on whether it's good or bad, but the only consistency is that it's the same for everybody. Who's got the advantage today? It possibly is Bridgestone. Who's got the advantage tomorrow? We don't know.

So that's what I'm getting back to, it's the same for everybody. This is the only sport where Bridgestone can compete with Michelin. They're not doing that in Formula One at the moment. I can see that that's why they're pushing to have better results.

Q. There's been a lot of discussion about MotoGP's financial state in the paddock - teams struggling for sponsorship and so on. Do you think that's a case of 'fat cats' wanting to get fatter, or is there a genuine problem for the sport in the long-term?

MD: At the end of the day, the manufacturers are the ones who will dictate that. And the manufacturers all seem pretty happy to be here. The sport, on the whole, seems to be quite healthy - with the audiences that we're having and the general exposure that the sport's getting.

I think there's always reason to complain about anything, you know? If we focus on the positive things, you'll get a lot more out of it. The sport, in general I think, is in pretty good shape.