Stoner And Hayden: MotoGP's Dream Team?

In the current MotoGP era, a team has never consisted of two premier class world champions--until now. For the '09 season, Ducati Corse united '07 titlist Casey Stoner with '06 champion Nicky Hayden in a bid to wrest the MotoGP crown back from Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi.

But serious questions surround both, and whether they can overcome them will go a long way in determining the title hopes of the Bologna factory.

In 2008, Rossi gave the field--and Stoner in particular--a sobering lesson in why he is an eight-time World Champion. At the pivotal Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix, Rossi was able to attack and unnerve Stoner so brilliantly that the Italian was able to clinch the championship four races later in Japan. Rossi said the championship was his most difficult ever, but it didn't look that way.

It didn't hurt Stoner assisted Rossi's cause by falling off at Laguna Seca and the following two races. After his third consecutive crash at Misano Adriatico, Stoner revealed he'd re-injured a break in his left scaphoid (a small but important wrist bone) that he'd first fractured in '03. He would need an operation at the end of the season to correct it. Not only did the surgery offer no guarantee of success, but it was a potentially career-ending injury. For '09, Stoner has to prove he's physically fit for the rigors of an 18-race schedule. At the moment, he isn't certain.

"The main thing at the moment is trying to heal the scar tissue because that is still restricting a lot of movement at the moment," Stoner said while preparing for the first test of the new year. "I don't know if I'm behind schedule but I'm not quite as far on as I thought I would be." The fracture is in an area where circulation can be diminished, which is why it's career-threatening. And why the operation was necessary.

"That's why I had to get the bone graft because it is only attached by one side, all the arteries. So when it is trying to connect itself there's only one side that is trying to heal; the other side is just slowly dying and that's the main problem there," he said. "So we've got to make sure that they're both connecting together and [getting circulation]."

Meanwhile, Hayden has gone more than two years without winning a title. From the moment he sat on Honda's tiny RC212V the day after he clinched his '06 title in Valencia, it was clear the bike was built for his smaller teammate Dani Pedrosa. His title defense in '07 produced his worst ever season, eighth overall with three podiums. The '08 campaign was better, but there were only two podiums, and he finished sixth on a team with a poisoned atmosphere. Hayden's role was clearly diminished and Pedrosa's manager Alberto Puig assailed the American's abilities in a late-season screed. By then it didn't matter. Just before the mid-point of the season, at the British Grand Prix at Donington Park, Hayden was told he wouldn't be back with the team.

The early warning was a godsend. Ducati wanted him, as they had in 2007, and for the factory team. It was a perfect fit.