The fall of the Spaniard from GasGas highlighted the flaws on the Portuguese track, with the riders angry at the absence of protective air-fences and the inadequate gravel: the first race of the season gives an alarm signal that cannot be overlooked
– Milan
MotoGP 2023 did not start off on the right foot. On the first day of official practice at the Portimao circuit, the world championship seems to have returned to its worst times due to serious safety problems on the track, the “gap” between requests from the riders and responses from the organization and too many things that didn’t work. Pecco Bagnaia summarized the most delicate and dangerous issue at the end of the day: “I’m very angry about safety because we’ve been asking for improvements for 4 years. I saw that the gravel has been changed here, but only in the initial part of the run-off areas, and that there are no air-fences at the corner where Pol Espargaro crashed”. Enea Bastianini also intervenes on the matter: “It is incredible that with the speeds we have, there are no air-fences at that point. The Safety Commission would make more sense to do them on Thursday and not on Friday after the first practice session”.
diggia’s precedent
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Already in the last MotoGP tests, a few weeks ago again in Portimao, Fabio Di Giannantonio crashed badly at turn 7: in hospital he was diagnosed with a concussion that made him miss the second and final day of testing. The Gresini team rider had complained about the conditions of the escape routes on the circuit, showing signs of how his full-face helmet had been reduced after the accident: the pebbles that form the gravel beds were too large, instead of the pebbles with a maximum diameter of 15mm, there were stones as big as fists and sharp. “When you hit these stones – Diggia accused – it’s more painful than hitting the asphalt. I slipped lying down on the asphalt and as soon as I reached the gravel I felt like an explosion. When my head hit the gravel, I passed out. Just look at how small my helmet is, I’ve never seen anything like it”.
open question
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The protests of the drivers in recent years have not produced any real changes, even if in the last few days there had been a coming and going of trucks to deposit new gravel. Thus, since these first tests the safety issue has re-emerged: with Pol Espargaro’s fall in the second free practice session, the tragedy was miraculously avoided, even if the Catalan driver’s conditions are serious due to a pulmonary contusion and a fractured dorsal vertebra and jaw, as well as various bruises. Pol lost control of his bike at turn 10: he was thrown, slipped on the asphalt, hit the gravel hard and didn’t slow down, crashing into the barriers, with the bike bouncing dangerously close to him. Transported by helicopter to Faro hospital for tests, he was diagnosed with two fractures plus a pulmonary trauma. In a MotoGP that is trying to find its own identity and get out of the post-Covid and post-Valentino Rossi crisis by focusing on the new format of the Sprint Race, the short race on Saturday afternoon, it is not very edifying to take note of what happened in Portimao . Even worse, treat it as a normal racing episode.
progress, but that’s not enough
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Someone irresponsibly says that risk is a pilot’s job, that falls are part of the game and that once upon a time it was worse with frequent fatal accidents. However, motorcycling is not the “loop-the-loop”: many steps forward have been made in terms of safety, but not in all circuits and, above all, not taking into account what this hyper-technological MotoGP with 300 HP motorcycles is today. power and 360 km/h speed and over 150 kg in weight. With ten pilots in half a second, the show is guaranteed, but the high level of competitiveness achieved by almost all the participants cannot overshadow safety: the lack of “elementary” measures such as the absence of air-fences at Portimao together with too large grains of gravel in the escape routes are not acceptable. If all this wasn’t enough, Friday afternoon’s session was interrupted due to a general electrical failure which deprived the teams of times and telemetry, with the race direction having no choice but to display the red flag. Racing is complex and it’s not easy to manage everything, but on its first official day of 2023, the MotoGP didn’t start off on the right foot, giving itself a negative image. The races, MotoGP in the lead, are today technically valid and competitively exciting, but after 75 years of MotoGP we are still here talking about the limits of the organization and serious deficiencies in terms of safety. It does not work this way. Either you change or you’ll soon hit the wall throughout the world championship.
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