Former MotoGP sta🍸r Casey Stoner has opened up about h꧅is love for Formula 1 and his admiration for racing drivers, whom he described as “freaking phenomenally talented”.

Stoner🃏 made a name for himself in motorcycle racing, winning MotoGP titles for both Ducati and Honda before retiring at the age of just 26.

He is regarded as one of the all-time greats in MotoGP, particularly for deliver🎃ing Duc𝔉ati a world title at a time when it was not counted in the same leagues as its Japanese rivals Honda and Yamaha.

B𒈔ut while Stoner’s first love has always been motorcycle r🌼acing, he also enjoys four-wheel racing and attends F1 races on a semi-regular basis.

While revealing tha🍌t it was hard for him to follow F1 in his early years in Australia, a trip to the Monaco GP in 2006 changed his perception of the series.

“I went to my first F1 ܫrace in ‘06 in Monaco – I was invite🧔d there,” Stoner revealed in an interview with .

“Lewis Hamilton was racing in GP2, won the race that day and I got to meet a few of the F1 guys and☂ really see what F1 was.

“I finally got t𝓡o see how amazing the cars were, and that's when I started being a lot more interested in it and developing far more knowledge about what goes on rather than just what you see on TV – it sort of changed my perspective on the whole thing.”

Stoner said a number of F1 stars caught his attention in the last 20 years, including Michael Schumacher, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Fernando Alonso, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lewis Hamilton and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Max Verstappen.

“Of course, we all saw Michael do what he did,” he sai🏅d. “Iﷺ followed Lewis very closely from around ‘06 onwards, you've got talent like Kimi Raikkonen in the car – you've got all these freaking phenomenally talented drivers.

“Lewis coming through, doing what he did, was ph🌄enomenal. Fern🔜ando Alonso back in the day and all the way through has been incredible, and now we've got Max Verstappen stepping up and being the next standout.

“I think there’s a group of four or five drivers, including guys like Seb Vettel, that all showed phenomenal and outstanding skills – but it wo🔯uld be only possible to really define them if they were in🃏 the same car at the same time, same moment, so it's very difficult for me to say one person.”

Stoner added he enjoyed the sound of V🌌10 engines, which were last used in F1 in 2005. 

The series’ stakeholders are currently discussing the prospect of bringing back V1🐻0 engines, running on sustainable fuels, in the mid-to-long term future.

“As for my favourite F1 car, I would say definitely a V10," he said. "Just hearing those things was always a pleasure and even if, for whatever reason, the racing wasn't am൲azing, just🐻 listening to it would make your day.”

Referring༺ to the chrome-liveried McLaren cars from the late 2000s and early 2010s, he added: “I would say the car that blew me away was at that first F1 race I went to – the McL🌟aren with the Vodafone livery, chrome finish. It was just ridiculous.

“You just never expected a car to be painted so beautifully and it was just an absolute mirror the whole tiꦯme. That was pretty incredible to see up close. You could see it on TV, but never, ever did it do itღ justice until you saw it in the flesh and realised how incredible it was.”