English
Italiano
The unusual error of Jorge Martin, who returned early to the pits at Misano for a bike change during the flag-to-flag Grand Prix, has rekindled the interest in rider-box radio comms, F1 style.
A topic already covered extensively in the past, even recently, by Carmelo Ezpeleta himself (HERE an interview from June 2023) who had ventilated the debut of the system as late as 2024... that is, today.
Nothing new under the sun then, although as always at irregular intervals on the subject the ball is thrown back in the middle of the court with the excuse of reviving the interest of viewers, especially TV viewers.
Motorcycle racing, however, unlike motor racing, has other dynamics. The rider does not sit comfortably in the cockpit but is rather a monkey hanging from a trapeze. Talking is difficult, but so is receiving, because even the slightest distraction at an inopportune moment could lead to undesirable results.
Technically, this would not be a problem, and to realize this recently we ourselves - just for fun - tried to simulate the situation in a test at Vallelunga with Cardo.
Would it therefore be worthwhile, after various experiments, which moreover began many years ago with the contribution of former rider Gianni Rolando, to turn to facts? The answer is a bit yes/no.
"In wet asphalt conditions, particularly like those of the Misano GP, it is the rider who decides what is best, and even we don't know completely, while it is absolutely impossible for the team to know what the track is like," said Marc Marquez in answer to a question on the subject at a press conference, adding, "the rider decides according to his feelings. Of course, if you go from wet to dry, the communication with the team can be useful because it can tell if someone is faster, if it's time to come back in, if it's time to stay out. But when you go from dry to wet, it's always the riders who decide. The radio box might be good for entertainment, and in this case I am in favor of it, but for the essence of the sport I am not. It is true, however, that we are here for the show, and for people at home it can be more interesting."
On the subject, Pecco Bagnaia also had his say.
"Obviously it depends on how they can do it and develop it, this kind of thing. But we already have all the possible input on the track, from the pits and a lot of information on our dashboard. So, I'm not in favor of it."
On the same wavelength, to remain jokingly on the subject, was Enea Bastianini , who noted how an incredible step forward should be made from the pit wall to assess track conditions better than the rider.
"If the feeling is good or not, it depends from one rider to another, what is happening in that situation," said Enea, who added, "I think the guys in the team are not able to say what the real condition is. Only we can tell. We should be much more technological to have more information than we are on the bike."
So what would have changed in the case of Misano in question for Martin? Probably nothing because no one from the pits, given the sudden weather change, would have felt like giving the rider appropriate information, in this case only shifting the responsibility from the rider to his box.
It is true that the teams could put 'observers' stationed with radios at various points on the track, but still not in direct radio contact with the riders, so there would still be some delay, not least because at many points on the track it would not be allowed to communicate anyway, think of a 250 km/h corner, for example.
Moreover, the rider, at the height of a downpour, surely has more information about the state of the asphalt, the grip and the behavior of his fellow riders, so what?
Marc Marquez is right when he points out that for the very essence of competition it would be like taking something away from the rider's instincts, therefore a bad thing, when we already have criticism about the invasiveness of electronics.
Our conclusion is that currently Dorna, or in the near future Liberty Media, are doing too much thinking about the spectacle and how to increase it with solutions that are not only of doubtful effectiveness, but also dangerous or that at best would lead even more to the devaluation of the riders' genius.
Instead, they would do better to start to ask questions about the quality of their management, the lack of real interaction of the main sponsors with the public, and in this sense on the almost total lack of investment by the main financiers who, at present, simply put their logos on the fairings.
Photo ©PierLuca Brunetti
