Francesco Bagnaia has criticised the poor attendance at MotoGP Security Fee conferences, calling it “utter nonsense” to imagine riders can’t affect selections by participating.
Bagnaia made these remarks after Friday observe in Barcelona, the place his former title rival Jorge Martin suffered a concussion after crashing closely at Flip 12.
The incident led to many riders, together with Martin himself, to name for a bigger run-off space on the quick right-hander, with the present gravel lure failing to stop the Spaniard from hitting the front-fairing of his Aprilia.
Forward of this weekend, a number of riders downplayed security issues linked to Barcelona’s notoriously low-grip floor, however unusually low temperatures made life tough for them on Friday.
Bagnaia confused that MotoGP’s Security Fee, which supplies riders a discussion board to voice their issues on Friday earlier than every grand prix weekend, stays an essential software for pushing for change within the championship
“This observe has been like this for at the very least six years. I believe it’s probably the most stunning observe there’s, however it’s fully ruined by the grip,” the manufacturing facility Ducati rider mentioned.
“It’s a catastrophe. There’s no grip, you possibly can’t do something. If you attempt to push as exhausting as you’d like, you crash. And this morning, it’s not like Jorge Martin did something out of the unusual.
“He went in, perhaps took a barely wider line, misplaced it, and crashed exhausting into the air fence. Now we now have the Security Fee assembly in 5 minutes. Possibly by speaking about it, we are able to put much more stress on them. However the issue isn’t a lot with the Security Fee. It’s extra about who owns the circuit. They’re those who determine what to do, in order that’s sophisticated.”
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Workforce
Photograph by: Gold and Goose Pictures / Getty Photos
Attendance on the weekly Security Fee conferences has declined in recent times, with Bagnaia, Pramac’s Jack Miller and Honda rider Luca Marini the one ones current frequently.
A number of riders have questioned the effectiveness of such conferences, with Tech3’s Enea Bastianini admitting in March that he stopped attending on account of frustration with an absence of progress on key points.
Nonetheless, Bagnaia dismissed recommendations that riders are powerless in influencing selections associated to security issues, describing their lack of attendance as a “critical” concern.
“How are you going to suppose one thing will not work when you do not even strive it? To me, that is utter nonsense,” mentioned the two-time MotoGP champion.
“Final week at Le Mans, there have been three of us on the Security Fee, and it was an essential assembly as a result of a rule was added on the fly [the change to pit lane entry procedures]
“I’m a type of who suppose that when you add a rule, you do it on the finish of the 12 months, not in the course of the season. Within the earlier race, a rider [Marquez], by doing that, scored 12 factors; within the subsequent race, he would have been given a ‘ride-through’ penalty – that’s not proper. So we needed to push slightly.
“There have been three of us, and we have been all in full settlement. However it’s a disgrace. To keep away from going to the Security Fee, some say they don’t have time. As a result of the truth is that nothing occurs. Issues simply don’t get performed. As a result of if there have been many people, we’d get issues performed. However the issue is that they don’t have time to come back to the Security Fee. Which, to me, is one thing much more critical.”
Whereas MotoGP has devoted our bodies to characterize producers and groups, all earlier makes an attempt to create a Grand Prix Drivers Affiliation-style rider union didn’t come to fruition.
On Thursday, Marini additionally recommended that riders ought to take into account electing a consultant who speaks on their behalf, however admitted that there’s a lack of unity among the many 2026 grid on main points.
Requested for his ideas on the matter, Bagnaia mentioned: “A riders’ consultant? For now, let all of them come to the fee, as a result of if we are saying the identical factor a union consultant would possibly say, what adjustments? Nothing.
“We’ve already tried that. We tried it some time again with Sylvain Guintoli, however then, sadly, issues didn’t work out as a result of we weren’t all on the identical web page. There have been riders, like these from KTM, who didn’t need to take part.”
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