Two-time MotoGP world champion Francesco Bagnaia has cast doubt on the safety amendments mentioned by MotoGP boss Carlos Ezpeleta on Friday at the Italian Grand Prix.
Clearly prompted by the controversial, accident-marred Catalan Grand Prix two weeks earlier, in which Alex Marquez and Johann Zarco sustained serious injuries, chief sporting officer Ezpeleta was ‘interviewed’ on MotoGP’s international feed during Free Practice 1 on Friday in Italy.
The administrator mentioned four areas under immediate consideration for reducing the number of accidents in the future – but Bagnaia came out and rejected two of them a day later.
Speaking after his ride to seventh place in the sprint on Saturday, Bagnaia said neither removing holeshot devices for race starts nor adjusting the layout of the grid would help.
“I don’t think [adding space between the rows] is a solution,” he said. “Or even just putting just two riders in [each row]. So I hope they think of other solutions, and we [riders] can give other solutions.
“For me, removing the rear and front device will not make big changes.”
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images
Bagnaia preferred to point to the current number of race starts per season, 44, as a safety factor, as well as the fact that the field is so tight in terms of performance.
“We are doing more crashes because we are starting much more, and we have more races,” he pointed out. “And if you consider 2011, 2012, 2014, six bikes were fast. All the others were slow. It’s difficult to compare.”
Bagnaia, who is one of the more active riders in the field when it comes to safety issues, reported that 12 competitors came to the safety commission meeting at Mugello on Friday.
While this was significantly more than most weekends, which was no surprise in the wake of Barcelona, Bagnaia said it wasn’t enough to give the riders a powerful voice.
“You need to have everyone [there]. But it’s already a step in the [right direction], so we hope that it will continue.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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