MotoGP | Riders unite against a grid decided by passport

The Paris Olympics have just ended, but the trail of enthusiasm has not yet faded, on the contrary. The Olympic Games always offer many sporting, human and even organizational ideas. MotoGP has also given careful attention, winking at the balance of the number of athletes per nation. In fact, Carmelo Ezpeleta, in a recent interview with Speed ​​Week he proposed the idea of ​​having a grid with a wider variety of nationalities.

“I know this is going to be controversial, but there could be a way to get more nationalities,” he said. “I don’t have a magic wand, but I hope we find a formula. The best have to be in the championship, no doubt. But it’s much easier to be the best if you’re Italian or Spanish. It has to be a bit like the Olympics: Only three Americans per discipline go to the Olympics. If you’re the fourth-best American, even if you have a better record than most of the others, you don’t make the roster.”

This statement did not leave the riders indifferent, especially Italians and Spanish, who felt most affected and did not hold back in their responses. All this is also a consequence of the rumors that Jack Miller is in Pramac: the Australian thus overtakes the most favored Tony Arbolino and Sergio Garcia, Italian and Spanish respectively.

“How many British or Anglo-Saxons are there in Formula 1?”, Raul Fernandez replied to the passport issue. “I don’t think it’s about nationality, we Spaniards and Italians are certainly better, however difficult it is to get here. If we were of another nationality, we would have more help in terms of training championships. In Spain it’s very difficult, personally I had to work hard and fight a lot to get to MotoGP, without forgetting the sacrifices of the family”.

“Apart from that, it’s about what the brands want. If you go to Honda, for example, and tell them they have to take three riders of this or that nationality, they will tell you that they don’t put 50 million into a project so you can tell me which riders I have to put. It won’t be easy to manage. What you have to see is that the riders sacrifice a lot and what you have to look at are the results. It’s a shame that a rider like Sergio Garcia, with what he has fought for and is doing, doesn’t have a place in MotoGP, so why do you have to work so hard? It’s frustrating, if you can’t do it, what do you want to try to do?”, continued the Trackhouse representative.

Not just Spaniards, but also Italians. Luca Marini had his say on this topic, when asked by Motorsport.com: “We need to understand why the level of Spanish and Italian riders is very high and they are in MotoGP because they are the best in the world, not because they are Italian or Spanish. If we had the possibility of finding riders of other nationalities of the same level, they would come”.

According to the Honda rider, it is also about tradition and motorsport culture, which in Italy and Spain is more consistent than in other nations: “In my opinion, both in Spain and Italy there is a culture, a passion and an organization that since you are a teenager, or even a child, allows you to grow as a rider and reach the top category, while in other countries it seems to be more difficult to develop. We will see how things go, but if that is the case we will have to be among the top three Italian riders, it is not a problem at all”.

Alex Marquez is of the same opinion, also underlining how the world championship investments are not profitable in terms of youth, at least at the moment: “The championship is investing in Asia and other regions by making promotional cups so that people come from there, but fortunately in Spain and Italy they don’t need to invest because we already have excellent championships from the federations and many riders come from there. You can’t fight against the fact that the best riders come from certain countries. And if you look at the bottom, it’s even worse, because all those who go up are Spanish and Italian”.