During Motegi's post-qualification press conference, one of our French colleagues dared to ask Jorge Lorenzo the following question: “Did you feel the protection of the airbag when you fell? »
Response from the interested party: “Yes, it was OK. It worked well. THANKS." (see here for all of Jorge Lorenzo's comments)
The problem, if there is a problem, is that the look given to the French journalist was full of irony and that made Johann Zarco more than smile.
Why?
Because for a while now, the Majorcan driver has hardly used a suit with an airbag. We have already drawn your attention to the subject.
Those of you with the MotoGP.com pass can see this by watching video of the fall here: no inflation of a possible airbag is visible. We therefore sincerely believe that he did not have any during his very spectacular fall in FP3.
Whatever the reasons (greater discomfort when driving?), and unless we are mistaken, it is the choice of #99, and it would be completely absurd and pretentious to want to judge it. And it's a fully accepted choice since even after this enormous highside, there was no airbag in the afternoon, as shown for example in our photo of the missing diodes taken during FP4...
His statement can obviously be explained by the marketing needs of his partner, like the water that pilots drink from their cans of energy drinks.
We questioned Hervé Poncharal who, as President of IRTA, was part of the Grand Prix Commission held on October 15, 2016 and, with Carmelo Ezpeleta (Dorna), Ignacio Verneda (FIM), and Takanao Tsubouchi (MSMA), and who made the decision to make airbag suits compulsory from 2018, to ask him if this had anything to do with the fall of Jorge Lorenzo.
Hervé Poncharal: " No. This is a project that we have been working on for 2 years and which was initiated by leather manufacturers, once their products had been developed. Their technology is now fully operational and we can only be supportive of anything related to security, regardless of the category. There is no reason why a young Moto3 player should be less protected than a top MotoGP rider. In terms of timing, the implementation was a little tight for 2017 and will therefore be mandatory for 2018. But that has nothing to do with Lorenzo's fall; it's a decision that was already taken several Grands Prix ago and which was simply ratified at Motegi. As for what you say about Jorge Lorenzo, I know absolutely nothing and I leave the responsibility for your statements to you. In any case, fortunately, he was well protected because the impact was very violent and he escaped with just a small, temporary sprain. I had dinner with him Saturday night, and he was great. The equipment manufacturers do a really good job. »
