The FFM recently presented the new noise standards applicable in competition and training in 2024. During a previous interview with President Sébastien Poirier, the latter told us of his desire to move forward in this area of reducing noise emissions, in the face of the danger that threatens motorcycle sport.
It is therefore to avoid this that the FFM has developed a roadmap, as detailed here Sébastien Poirier.
Sébastien Poirier : " As I indicated upon my election as president of the Federation, I had set up various working groups, including one which focused on reducing noise emissions. This working group is chaired by Jean-Marc Desnues, who is first vice-president, and who has initiated a whole series of meetings, in particular with the presidents of the federation's commissions but also with representatives of importers and certain accessories manufacturers. There were therefore discussions and at the same time we approached the FIM to see exactly what the roadmap was going to be defined by the FIM. I had personally indicated very clearly from the start of my mandate that I wanted us, the French Motorcycling Federation, to commit to a road map to ensure that our noise emissions were reduced.
Noise emissions constitute a sword of Damocles for practices on speed circuits and motocross. The list is long of all the motocross circuits which now for 10 years have disappeared or have lost a good part of their activity, and in the same way I am not going to list the speed circuits which are experiencing difficulties linked to sound emissions. In recent years, the automobile industry and the FFSA have done work to reduce noise emissions, to the point that today when we are at a ministerial meeting for circuit approvals, the automobile sector has passed the threshold, while concerning us, when there are difficulties it is the motorcycle which is each time identified as responsible for certain difficulties with the neighborhood.
So with this in mind, I will not be the president of the federation who sees that the circuits are in difficulty and who looks elsewhere! JI absolutely want us to be able to continue our practices, that we can save our circuits and ensure that they can develop. This inevitably involves a reduction in noise emissions. Conversely, what I also say, and in a positive way, is that once we have sorted out our noise emissions, then we will be able to calmly develop, continue our activities and consider the future in a much better way. more radiant.
This is not new, but today that is the debate, and I want us to accelerate the movement because there is a before and an after Covid, and the legal department of the federation is dealing with it today. Today there are a lot of files related to noise emissions from machines. It is therefore absolutely necessary that we commit to a guideline. It's going to be complicated, that's obvious, and that's why we are on 2024. We took this file into account from the beginning of 2021, in the middle of the Covid crisis, and From the start of the school year in September, we will launch very strong communication with our licensees to explain to them the issues, and tell them why it is collectively that we will succeed in reducing noise emissions.
This will involve better maintenance of the exhaust systems, it will also involve an awareness that noise is existential for them, and it will also require preparation time and potentially an investment to make to change your exhaust line. . But on this point, I believe that we must not be weak, because it is above all not to annoy our licensees or our practitioners, it is precisely to ensure that we can continue to practice peacefully tomorrow and that we can also be able to envisage the future in a much more positive way. I don't think I took anyone by surprise because it's something I've been carrying since I was elected. At the same time, we are going to launch calls for projects because there are disciplines which are suffering more than others. I am thinking in particular of the Supermotard because today the Supermoto has great difficulty using practice sites such as karting circuits. We absolutely must reduce our noise emissions as quickly as possible to be able to continue training. There will therefore be a call for projects which will be launched in the coming weeks, and we are ready to go all the way, that is to say to impose a single exhaust system during Supermotard competitions, there is only one exhaust system which drastically reduces our noise emissions.
So yes, we are on a proactive policy but I believe that it is for the good of all. I completely understand that it is difficult and anxiety-provoking for the riders, but I do not want the State to tell us that the future of motorcycles necessarily involves electric vehicles.. I believe in the future of thermal, I still believe in the noise on our motorcycles, there is no subject on that, but it is up to us to reduce it. I remind you that when you reduce around ten dB on a motorcycle, you halve the noise impact: every dB gained is fundamental! So it won't be easy but I also know that I can count on our drivers because the vast majority of drivers understood that there was a difficulty. They are themselves faced with technical difficulties, in relation to their exhaust, but I believe that we, as a federation, must mark a time, we must mark a road map and we mark also the very clear desire to reduce noise emissions to help French circuits, particularly speed circuits, to ensure that they can develop peacefully. The circuits expect the federations to set the rules and set a course, because they also need us to develop. »
Did you sense any specific threats to thermal energy at the government level, in case you hadn't moved?
« Every time we talk about noise, they talk to me about electricity! That is to say thatevery time there is a problem, at the prefecture or at the ministry, I am told “what about the electricity?” ". Implied “when you go electric, there will no longer be a noise problem”. Which is true for the moment, because it is the great advantage of electric, but which is a terribly problem for us, a sports federation, because for the moment, and this is the answer that I give to the ministry and to national elected officials, I tell them “listen, our difficulty is that our spectators also come to hear something. The sound environment is also part of the show.
What I believe is thattoday we can and must claim a right to noise during competitions, because there can be acceptability as there is acceptability on concerts, but in regular training it is absolutely necessary to reduce noise emissions. We, the federation, must draw rules for training from the competition, and I believe that once there is ownership of all the circuits, we will have won the battle. But we have to win this battle, because if we don't follow a road map and we don't regulate, well yes, in fact, the easy solution for the government is to say “there you go, this is the norm” or “this is the project, it’s electric!” ". There are already countries, such as in Hungary at the Hungaroring, where the law has already limited the noise level authorized on the circuit. So we absolutely must take ownership of this problem because if we do nothing, things will be imposed on us, and I prefer that we be responsible, that we subscribe to a road map and that we can have a constructed speech with the public authorities so that they give us time to get through this period, and that within several years we can perpetuate our practice of speed at 95 dB on the circuits, and also respond to expectations residents of the circuits. Today, there are people who ride on public roads with motorcycles who do not have access to a speed circuit because the speed circuits find themselves obliged to prohibit motorcycles which are authorized to ride. on public roads, because these motorcycles make too much noise from the moment the exhaust valves open at a certain engine speed. So there is also an awareness of manufacturers, importers and accessories manufacturers and we all have to be responsible, I believe a lot in prop makers: they have a role to play, they even have a duty in relation to the development of their practice, and it is also to them that we must turn. »
