Ducati: Stoner helped by inexperience

Stoner and Hamilton have both surprised onlookers this year with their dominant performances, especially considering they are going up against experienced teammates with identical machinery.

But Jenkins thinks that part of their success is down to them not being weighed down by negative experiences from the past, or needing to make the transition to new equipment.

"Lewis didn't do much in an F1 car last year, so he was straight in and there wasn't much to confuse him," Jenkins told autosport.com. "It is the same for Casey as well.

"Okay, Casey had a learning year on the Honda (in 2006), but he doesn't have a backlog of information about how the old bikes were either, or what the tyres were like two years ago. He is able to treat it fairly fresh.

"What we are also probably seeing is that as he gets more confident in the basic job, he is getting more interested in all the other things around him - like why the bike is the way it is and what goes into it. And that is positive to try and develop things for the future.

"You would have to say that if he retains the confidence and then has a season of information then next year he should be blinding. This is all new territory for him. "

Jenkins says he is fairly upbeat about Ducati's chances of winning the MotoGP championship this year, now that the bike has triumphed on all different types of circuit and in different weather conditions.

"The good sign is the bike seems to work everywhere. It works at all kinds of track and, although some bikes have strong points, the differences are very minor. There are more differences in the way the bikes are being ridden by the riders.

"The interesting thing is that Casey's worst result is fifth. He can lead a race, doesn't get fazed in a race, saves a bit when he needs to, and so far has not looked like throwing it down the road at the first corner. That is what you need to do to win championships.

"The worst thing that can happen is a nil point job. At the moment though, the only time he has binned it has been in a test after a race. It was the first lap out on cold tyres and he was still thinking about what happened on Sunday."