Casey Stoner: Jorge Lorenzo will find Ducati MotoGP switch tough

Lorenzo has raced with Yamaha since stepping up to the premier class in 2008, winning three titles in that time.

Ducati targeted and successfully captured Lorenzo earlier this year, as it chases a first MotoGP title since Stoner's in 2007, while it has not won a race since the Australian left the team at the end of 2010.

Stoner, who raced Honda machinery either side of his four seasons with Ducati, has returned to the Italian manufacturer as a test rider and ambassador this year.

While he expects Lorenzo to find the switch a challenge initially, he is backing the Spaniard to get it right.

"Of course at the beginning it's going to be very tough for him," Stoner told Autosport.

"He's had so many years on the Yamaha, which is a very, very different machine.

"And the Japanese and Italian styles, essentially, are very, very different.

"It will take a little bit of time to adjust, there's no doubt about that.

"But we know Jorge, we know how he just keeps slogging things out.

"He's very, very smart, he'll figure things out and then we'll do our best to work for the direction he wants as well, and we want to get as much direction from Jorge as we can.

"Having someone else with his amount of expertise and his level of riding will really help Ducati extract more from the bike."

FOCUS ON DEVELOPMENT, NOT RACING

Since talk of Stoner's return to Ducati from Honda emerged, he has been linked to the prospect of racing in MotoGP for the first time since he retired in 2012, as a wildcard.

Stoner has insisted that there is "no plan" for him to do so, and that is his focus is on helping Ducati develop its Desmosedici GP for race riders Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone, and then Lorenzo in Iannone's place next year.

He sampled Ducati's 2015 bike at Sepang earlier this year, then had a weather-hit test on the '16 model at Qatar following the season opener.

"We have no plans for me to race or do anything like that," Stoner said.

"First and foremost, it's test riding, getting our guys and our bikes towards the front more and not only for this year, but especially for Jorge coming across next year.

"We're going to be working as hard as we can to try to make sure we've got it as close as we can before he gets on."