By Julian Shea

Stoner won 10 races on his way to the 2007 world title

Casey Stoner wants to retain his MotoGP crown to finally silence the critics.

Stoner, 22, begins his title defence in Qatar at the weekend but says there has been too much focus on his Ducati's technology instead of his ability.

Ahead of the sport's first floodlit race, the Australian told BBC Sport: "It's frustrating people put everything down to that or the speed or the tyres.

"They're just trying to find excuses. It would be nice to think if we win it again the accusations would stop."

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In only his second season competing in the top class of motorbike racing, Stoner racked up 10 wins as he surged to the 2007 title.

Much was made of the advantages he had with the speed of his bike and also its traction control, which handles the tyres' grip on the track, but Stoner hinted this was just down to jealousy from older riders and bigger teams.

"Everyone's using that as the reason why us young riders are coming up and doing well," he stated.

"We've been riding bikes our whole lives, so we know how to ride without it."

Honda rider Dani Pedrosa came second, with Valentino Rossi a distant third on his Yamaha.

Rossi (left) and Stoner now seem to be on speaking terms again

"I know the Japanese factories have been trying to bring in new rules to squish us down a bit," added Stoner.

"With the amount of manpower they have compared to Ducati, they're running scared - trying to use politics to bring Ducati back to their level. They should try to work harder.

"At the beginning of the season Valentino was fantastic, it was great racing and he was giving me credit, but at end of the season he wasn't really talking to me. He didn't like the fact I could come in and win."

When he was a teenager, Stoner's parents famously sold their possessions in Australia and moved to live in a caravan in England to help him further his racing career.

And he revealed he has a love-hate relationship with the United Kingdom.

"Some of our closest friends are from there but we've also met some people who've tried to stamp us into the ground constantly", he revealed.

I'm not expecting to be champion again but we're hoping and doing all we can, working as hard as we can to make sure we have the best possible chance Casey Stoner

"It never seems to stop from there, no matter what you do you never seem to get credit and it's only our closest friends who seem to give any help."

Despite going into the season wearing the champion's number one on the front of his bike, Stoner said he did not feel under any burden of expectation from his team.

"Last year there was no number one rider in the team, it's not like that at Ducati," he said.

"They try to get every one of their riders running fast and do what that rider needs.

"Loris Capirossi struggled with the engine in some parts of last season so they changed the configuration and in the last half of the season he got better results."

A shoulder injury in the close season may have cost Stoner some physical training time but anyone thinking the world champion has fallen off the pace is in for a disappointment.

"Pre-season has been very positive," he insisted.

"We've made a few slight changes to the bike, which have been a big advantage.

"We struggled with acceleration last year, no matter what anyone thinks, and at testing in at Philip Island we made a few changes to the chassis, which seemed to give us another little edge and made it easier to put the bike into the position I wanted coming out of the turns."

Stoner says he is happy to ride wearing the number one plate

After winning the world title, Stoner was named young Australian of the year, something that came as a big surprise.

"It was very unexpected, I was standing there with people who had been putting in lots of work with their community, working with underprivileged children etc and I almost felt a bit shallow just as a motorbike racer," he admitted.

"But we proved that if you set goals and set your mind you can achieve them. It was very nice that Australia watched our progress over the season and took note."

Stoner is too cagey a character to make rash predictions and did not want to pick out specific individuals as title rivals - but he is clearly not taking his title for granted.

"I'm not expecting to be champion again but we're hoping and doing all we can, working as hard as we can, to make sure we have the best chance possible," he said.

"And it's nice to be running the number one plate for one year anyway."