MotoGP | Aleix: “I don't understand the criteria used with Marquez and Binder”

The Aprilia rider is the veteran of the grid and has extensive experience in the World Championship, so it is recurrent to consult with him in dangerous situations, such as a race that recorded 15 crashes, or some of the accidents that have occurred, in particular Brad Binder's aggressive overtaking of Pecco Bagnaia which ended with the Italian in the gravel, or Marc Márquez's overtaking of Joan Mir, which meant a “drop one position” for the Gresini Racing driver.

“It was very difficult, when the track dries out the riders are cautious, but the track was perfect, except for a few places where there was water, which made the situation very dangerous. I stepped on a patch of water and I ended up on the ground,” he explained.

The Aprilia veteran didn't feel the track was in too critical a condition to stop the race once it started.

“No. Once the race has started you can't give a red flag if the conditions don't worsen, as happened. Another thing is if you don't start, you wait a bit and the wet areas dry out. You can discuss whether to race or less”.

“It's difficult to decide whether in today's conditions you can race or not, there will always be drivers who want to race in any situation, one comes to mind, number 43 (Jack Miller) who, if there were cows in the middle of the track, would want run and will say it's our job, others will say no, it's complicated. In any case, if you've made the start you can't go back if the conditions don't get worse.”

The situation was complicated and there were very extreme maneuvers, such as Brad Binder's contact with Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez's contact with Joan Mir in two risky overtakings.

“I didn't understand why they only made him give up one position (to Marquez) and I didn't even understand what happened with Binder. Binder's two wheels were completely above the curb, it's not a normal line, it's totally abnormal, not there's room. And that's the way I saw the action,” he clarified his point.

It was explained to Aleix that Mir was very angry about what happened and that he believed that the sanctions were applied based on the name of the culprit (in this case Marquez). “I completely agree with Joan. The two actions are very clear, I had done a lighter one in Binder in Indonesia, with water that you couldn't see anything, I touched it very lightly and we both went long and I got a long lap penalty. There's nothing more replicable than that action: touching someone and putting them out of the game.”

“Every weekend there are 23. Why does one get a long lap penalty and another loses only one position? There are more complicated actions to judge, like Binder and Pecco at Turn 1, or Marquez and Bagnaia in Portugal, but leaning to a rival while overtaking and take him off the track or you get a long lap penalty or you lose a position, it should always be the same. You can't change it.”

Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

Photo de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“No one understands the criteria, in the Safety Commission we talk about the same thing but no one understands it,” he said, referring to the way Race Direction administers sanctions.

For some time now, riders have been asking the championship promoter for a system to be able to alert Race Direction in complicated situations. They call it the “red button”.

“We've been asking Dorna for this for two years and they've been working on it for just as long,” he said, referring to the idea of ​​incorporating it on the handlebars. “It would be useful to report things that cannot be seen from the outside, to warn the Race Direction. A lot of water, oil on the track, a rider releasing liquids from the motorbike… if more than one rider presses the red button, the Race Direction interrupts the race”.

A few years ago, right in Jerez, a headset on helmets was tested to talk to riders.

“The FIM should approve the safety of the helmet, in F1 there is no impact on the headset area due to the halo, here the helmet touches the ground. The red button would be useful when it rains and you can't see them from the outside, for example, dangerous situations that only the pilots can see,” explained the Granollers driver.