Stoner: Traction control is here to stay

Riders have regularly complained that electronics now play too great a role in controlling MotoGP bikes, and there were further calls for rider aids to be reduced or removed after suggestions that even riding in the wet practice sessions at Donington Park last weekend had become too easy.

But while Stoner concurred with the sentiment, he cannot envisage the rule-makers agreeing to remove traction control.

"I completely agree. The problem is they won't go back now," he said. "There are 70 or 80 per cent less broken bones than there were before, there are less accidents, less problems, and how are we going to go back now? There's no way when there's a safety issue.

"It's saved a lot of people a lot of pain. Jorge [Lorenzo] and I have proved that you can still have a flick-off. But honestly if it was still 500cc or even the early 1000cc days people would still be flying through the air and hurting themselves."

Stoner added that he had been using traction control more in recent races after changes to the Ducati's electronics, and that it had proved helpful despite his personal dislike of it.

"We've only found a good system since Catalunya. We found something that's helped tame the Ducati and calmed a down a lot," he said.

"Up to that point I never had TC cuts, I never liked the feeling of it and I still don't. But you can't live without them. When you do make that big mistake it is there to save you.

"For me it takes a lot of the power of the bike away as well. You can slide it to a certain degree, but it is taking a lot away from the bikes. It seems like everyone's focusing on it now.

"For the last couple of years we didn't have nearly as much as we've had since Catalunya. And I hate to admit it, but it is helping. But before that point, I hated any cuts during a lap. I felt it just hindered me and I wasn't able to ride like I wanted. Unfortunately when you're struggling in those long corners at Catalunya and it's easy to spin up, it does help you."

He believes traction control is starting to become one of the most important elements of MotoGP engine performance.

"They've got all their cuts between the firing orders, it's getting really complicated now," said Stoner. "It's starting to be designed around the engine management system."