Last week, our friend Except Pennisi, Head of Pirelli Development, commented on social media.
“The airbag has been mandatory in MotoGP since 2018. How is it possible that a driver is allowed on the track with an empty airbag, among other things? There is a lot of talk about safety, but what is it? It is not clear that there are obviously no rules or autonomous common sense protocols for drivers and teams who monitor such elementary and check something like this through marshals at the pit exit, with an absolute no-entry ban for those who do not have their full cargo lighting I have Participated in two GS Trophies and one selective (Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand) and every morning at the beginning of each stage an official meticulously checked (more than a hundred participants) that everyone was wearing each protective element correctly (chest / knee / elbow – / neck collar) as well as helmet, gloves and approved boots ”.
Exceptwho is obviously very concerned about safety at work, was referring to the episode with Enea Bastianini in Mugello. We then found out, thanks to Alpinestars (and confirmed due to Enea’s collision with Zarco) that Bastianini’s leather still had three hours of autonomy, but the point made by Pennisi is correct: which checks the condition of the driver’s equipment at the start. From the result it is clear that the answer is … nobody.
We remember, however, that in the 80s, in addition to the motorcycles, the mechanics also had to show up for the technical controls with the driver’s clothing, even if someone turned a blind eye back then Gianni Rolando remembers the condition of the leather. For the most part, the buccaneers’ leathers had actually seen better days …
Today, however, you get the impression that we are concentrating more on the mechanic’s uniform in the pit, which certainly has little to do with a helmet that is worn in the pit lane, just for image reasons.
The subject has reappeared with the “fall” of Quartararo and his leathers, which open at 300 km / h. If the zipper had broken it would have been a coincidence, but it didn’t break. So it’s either one of two things: either Fabio didn’t close it properly by lowering the zipper, or he opened it to fix the chest protector, which then got lost.
It had never happened before, but that’s not the point. Motorsport is an activity that is based on certain rules, some of which have no interpretations. An open leather racing suit corresponds to a loose exhaust or a loose fairing. It is a dangerous situation and in these cases the black flag with an orange circle together with the driver number is automatically displayed.
Safety rules should not be interpreted, but applied
In cases like these one cannot and should not argue: but nothing happens anyway, ie the regulation must not be interpreted but on the contrary only applied. Slave.
This is because the rules are clear and, just like disqualification – or in any case the intended penalties – the flag is automatically displayed on a car or bicycle with improper weight, dimensions or cubic capacity.
Unfortunately, the race direction has been completely inadequate for some time: the end Mike Webb to the body of stewards headed by Freddie Spencer, Bill Cumbow and a local representative, everyone there seems to be involved in … doing nothing.
The additional three-second penalty rightly angered Quartararo
because If the black and orange flag was the correct answer, the extra three seconds penalty inflicted on Quartararo means nothing where the answer had to be that of security. Whatever it takes.
In fact, there is no doubt about it if Fabio had to get off the line, slow down, close his leather pants, he would have lost well over three seconds. And in any case the purpose would have been to let him drive in complete safety. There is no substitute sanction for safety. But this farce race direction doesn’t know it. You just don’t get it. And I don’t want to go any further, because the other options would be even more offensive.
So it is either one or the other: they either do not know the rules or they cannot apply them spontaneouslyas it would have been correct in this case.
The world championship must be equipped with an adequate race direction
However, there was much more to the Barcelona GP than Quartararo’s leather: the Moto3 race, Wasn’t a race like it had been for a while, but a heavy brawl …
They are passed off as exciting races with a bit of a crowd and a constant search for the best position to get a tractor or not. And all of this happens while trajectory changes and driver misbehavior are the order of the day …
Shall we talk about the way the Moto3 GPs are handled?
The lack of intervention by the stewards because of Jeremy Alcoba’s. caused accident who slowed dramatically at the end of the penultimate lap when he was in the lead, causing a group of 15 riders to cluster together, leading to the fall of Dennis Foggia, Xavier Artigas and Ayumu Sasaki, passed in complete silence. That just can’t happen.
As Luca Cadalora rightly pointed out in our #BarSport on Sunday evening, the Moto3 riders are the MotoGP riders of tomorrow and when they grow up without rules and regulations they become difficult to handle riders.
It should be remembered for the umpteenth time: Motorcycling is a brave sport, but bravery does not mean malice and disobeying the rules. But on the contrary. Courage is the search for the limit, knowing how far you can go and stopping there. Everything else calls for demagoguery …