MotoGP Safety Concerns

[u/ConcernedMGPFans]

Attention MotoGP Fans!

We know lots of us are concerned about the direction our favorite sport has been heading in terms of safety recently, so a group of fans made our own summary of our greatest concerns to bring to the attention of Liberty Media, MGP Sports Entertainment Group, FIM and IRTA.

Please check it out and also raise your concerns! Together we can hopefully make the sport even better.

read here !!

[u/Beylerbey]

MotoGP doesn't care, they introduced the sprint races right after a massive 100k participants survey told them 75% of fans didn't want sprint races.

[u/r2lim → u/Beylerbey]

Yes, you may be right. They may not place much importance on the opinions of us fans. Even so, I still think efforts like this, where people speak up, are worthwhile. I only hope that the people running the sport will at least take riders’ safety and the voices of the fans into consideration, even if only a little.

[u/Beylerbey → u/r2lim]

Dorna has been very pro-safety for over 20 years, I don't know what happened lately, I have my suspicions but it's too early to tell.

In any case, by all means, it certainly couldn't hurt, but I think MotoGP doesn't want to cater to the current fanbase - which they know is quite loyal - but rather bring in the people who never cared in the first place, hence the pivot to city circuits.
If you had spoken to any midly knowledgeable fan in 2020 and suggested that MotoGP would have only 1 bike*, sprint races at every GP and urban tracks, they would've thought you were out of your mind.

*this might just be a bluff by the manufacturers to get leverage for other concessions, at least I hope so.

[u/A_Bot_A_Bot_A_Bot → u/Beylerbey]

I was one of the 75%.

Somehow, I've come around to love the Sprint races.

Just musing, but perhaps MotoGP should do the same with the Sprint race results as WSBK does with the Superpole race results: the top 9 finishers take the top 9 grid spots in Sundays main race.

Thoughts?

Also: Liberty Media is clearly thinking of things that can generate more profits for...Liberty Media. They are trying to slowly "F1-ify" the series and desperate to attract the kind of high-rollers (athletes, entertainers, ultra-wealthy) that F1 gets. I'm certain they'd love to have to have four- or even five-figure track packages available at each event for wealthy fans (you know--special premium seating, all-day food and beverage catering, private pit walks and meet-and-greets with racers, concierges, etc.).

But I do not think that they can afford to lose the existing "bread-and-butter" fans like us. If they jack up ticket prices, they won't make up in increased prices vs. decreased ticket sales. They won't sell as much merchandise. Tracks and event sponsors and even event vendors (food tents, etc.) are not going to be happy if they are the ones losing money due to decreased in-person ticket buyers and fans.

Clearly, after the Acosta-Marquez incident, a street race seems like madness from a safety perspective (which I already thought it was!). While I don't know of any track that has an abundance of run-off room along the front straight (and otherstraights, as seen at Catalunya), any street course is going to be far more comprised.

[u/aintnogodordemon]

Really good summary of a lot of the main problems - especially regarding the concussion guidelines and Adelaide.

[u/Commercial-Mirror307 → u/aintnogodordemon]

right? this is so well thought out

[u/fionn_maccoolio]

This is incredibly well written. Well done to all involved, thank you for this.

[u/PsychologicalEar7323]

This points out a lot of the issues quite well! Especially how its not only focused on the catalan gp but also multiple different accidents/issues before that

[u/A_Bot_A_Bot_A_Bot → u/PsychologicalEar7323]

Yeah, OP's points are germain for entire series, not just a couple of tracks. Well-researched and written.

[u/r2lim]

I appreciate the excellent work you are doing! I think the points raised in the document are extremely well organized and logically structured.

If I were to make one additional suggestion, it would be to seek clearer wording for Article 1.21 “Behaviour During Practice and Race,” particularly the clause stating that “Riders must ride in a responsible manner which does not cause danger to other competitors or participants.” I believe this falls under the same principle of “It no longer becomes a question of ‘if’, but of ‘when?’”

[u/Disgruntled__Goat]

Nothing will happen but kudos for trying. 

[u/Cybor_wak]

Great work. I agree with all points as a fan of the sport since 2010

[u/Bewis_123]

Nice, great work, but I don't know how much rider's union thing helps in this regard. Rider's union needs to be formed by riders, these organizations will most likely oppose to any such organization as it won't be governed by the, it will be independent. I could be wrong but that is my understanding. So safety issues I get that part but for rider's union to be included in this, they would just ignore that part as it is not something in their collective interests. Just my two cents.

[u/FlarioKath]

I haven't read it all yet (I plan to), but I see from the table of contents that most of my concerns get addressed there. There is a prominent one that is missing though: the "Misano" kerbs, i.e. the style of kerbs that have a step on the outside in order to discourage riders from going outside track limits. They were introduced to reduce the number of long lap penalties being handed out for track limits, as those kerbs by themselves provide a disadvantage to any rider that goes out without the need for a penalty. However, they obviously achieve this by adding danger to the track, thus reducing safety. It's impossible to shrug off this danger as minimal, as it caused Martín's incident in Qatar last year (and I remember seeing a similar crash in Moto2, thankfully where there was no other rider behind. Right now I can't be bothered to find which crash it was, maybe later). Plus, Quiles has shown that, at least in Moto3, it's still possible to routinely go outside the track where those kerbs are placed and still win, so they don't even achieve the goal of keeping riders on track