That the British Grand Prix is canceled due to poor resurfacing of the English circuit is not open to discussion, since it is a safety measure adopted by the drivers themselves.
It is obviously regrettable for you, for us, and even more for the spectators who came and waited hours for nothing, but it is reason that had the last word.
On the other hand, that the factory teams decided not to postpone the race until tomorrow is much less understandable, especially since this already took place in Qatar in 2009: all the equipment is already on site and the costs incurred are far from that. be gigantic, compared to certain runs, even private ones, like the one which will take place in Aragon this week.
However, it was a refusal opposed by the Factory Honda and Yamaha teams, followed in this position by Suzuki in the name of solidarity, while Ducati was ready to play the game to respect the spectators who could have returned this Monday, the day public holiday in the United Kingdom.
This was also the opinion ofHervé Poncharal, but the boss of the Tech3 team had to accept the majority's decision and order all the equipment to be repacked.
The French team manager explains…
Hervé Poncharal : “I have always been a democrat and I respect the majority. Above all, I respect the drivers because they are the ones who take the risks and they can decide above anyone else whether it is safe to ride or not. Personally, just after the formation of the grid, when we decided, which was the right decision of the race management, to postpone the start of the race, I had a meeting with all the team directors and it There was a possibility of racing tomorrow as it is a public holiday in the UK and the sun will be shining. So the track will be dry, and everything is ready for a big MotoGP race, which most of the time we have here at Silverstone. But some team managers decided they didn't want to do that, although we already did it in Qatar and it wasn't the end of the world to arrange a few extra rooms or change a few flight tickets. 'plane. I've always been outspoken and I've always said what I think, and I think we should always try to race. There was an opportunity to do this safely and I'm disappointed we didn't take it. But anyway, let's forget about it and get out of here. We can just say that we are very, very sorry for the spectators who have been waiting for this race for a year, and I think that should be more on our minds. We return to the sun in the south of France and hope we have a good race in Misano.”
