Casey Stoner has broken a long silence on MotoGP's calendar shake-up to declare that pulling the Australian Grand Prix away from Phillip Island in favour of an Adelaide street circuit is one of the worst decisions the championship could make.
The dual world champion, who claimed six victories at the seaside circuit between 2007 and 2012, used social media to question why a venue widely regarded as one of motorcycle racing's finest is being moved aside.
"MotoGP to take Phillip Island off the calendar! One of the greatest Motorcycle circuits in the entire world that has produced some of the greatest and most entertaining races we have witnessed, and continues to do so year after year, is being pushed to the side in place of a race in Adelaide and supposedly a street circuit," Stoner wrote.
"Why would MotoGP take possibly their best circuit off the calendar… I'll let everyone decide."
The 2026 Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island in October will be the venue's last for the foreseeable future, with Adelaide taking over as the host city from 2027 on a new street layout being prepared by the South Australian government.
1987 500cc world champion Wayne Gardner was no kinder. The Victorian-government-backed deal to keep the race at Phillip Island had been on borrowed time, he said, and the political back-and-forth around the venue had become tiresome.
"I've just heard the news. I'm not surprised if I'm honest. This has been coming for some years," Gardner said. "The Victorian government have a reputation of winning, losing, disappearing, and then they come back, and then they go again, and it's just on and off."
Asked what would happen to his bronze statue at the Phillip Island circuit when the race packs up, Gardner did not mince words.
"I might jam it up their arses, actually," he said.
The reaction has not been universally negative. Australian rider Jack Miller, who last raced for Pramac in MotoGP and remains close to the championship, has cautiously welcomed the move on safety grounds, saying the new street layout will be designed with modern run-off in mind rather than the cramped barriers that defined earlier street tracks.
"There won't be a concrete barrier or an air fence in touching distance," Miller said. "I fully trust Carlos and their calculations."
Even so, Miller acknowledged the emotional weight of leaving Phillip Island behind for the riders who have grown up tackling its high-speed sweeps.
"Everybody will be deeply disappointed. Phillip Island has been one of the favourites for a very, very long time in terms of riders," he said.
For Stoner, an Australian who arguably did more than any rider to build the Phillip Island legend in the modern MotoGP era, the issue is not the engineering of the new street layout but the principle of replacing a track he sees as world-class.
His final podium at Phillip Island in 2012 followed by his retirement gave the circuit one of its most enduring images: a home hero saluting the crowd at the chequered flag. With his blunt social media intervention, Stoner has now made it very clear that he believes the championship is throwing away an asset money cannot easily rebuild.
The 2027 Adelaide round will mark MotoGP's first true street race in modern times. Whether the riders, fans and history-makers like Stoner come around to it will be a story written one lap at a time — but the warning shot from one of Australian motorsport's most decorated voices has now been fired.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/casey-stoner-phillip-island-motogp-exit-adelaide-blast). Visit for full coverage.*
