Ducati's MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner drew a firm line on Thursday between himself and Italy's longstanding motorcycling hero Valentino Rossi.
Stoner, in Rome with his Ducati team to meet Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, has become a national hero since riding an Italian bike to victory in the 2007 world championship.
But the 21-year-old Australian was keen to tell Italians that he was not a new version of the Italian rider who mesmerised the nation for years with his good looks, cheery personality and winning ways.
''I don't have to become a new Valentino. I am just myself and that's all,'' he said. ''And that doesn't take anything away from the great respect I have for him and his victories''.
Unlike the 28-year-old Rossi, whose after-race capers and playboy image are familiar to his compatriots, Stoner has tended to avoid the media spotlight when possible.
Wearing a dark suit and sticking close to his wife as he attended the ceremony at the presidential palace, he seemed intimidated initially by the pomp and ceremony of the occasion.
The head of state congratulated the Ducati star, joking that he had won the MotoGP championship for Italy, on an Italian bike, and that all that remained was for Italy to ''give you citizenship''.
Stoner smiled, saying he was proud of his victory and honoured to be presented to the president.
Later, speaking to journalists, he stressed his positive feelings about the country with whose people he now spends much of his time.
''I have a great relationship with Italy, thanks to Ducati, which is like a second family for me,'' he said.
For some Italians Rossi has fallen off his pedestal recently thanks to a loss of form on the track and a tax wrangle with the Italian state.
Perhaps referring to the nation's need for a new motorcycling superstar, he remarked after Stoner won his first championship crown that the hard part of his career was ''only just starting''.
