Between Maio Meregalli and the panel of FIM commissioners, it is a crisis which began last year, when, after the Dutch Grand Prix in Assen where Fabio Quartararo had a clash with Aleix Espargaró, the driver Yamaha was sanctioned with a “long lap” penalty for the following round at Silverstone. With the events that occurred at the last Spanish Grand Prix, where the same officials sanctioned its riders Franco Morbidelli on Saturday, then Fabio Quartararo on Sunday, it was not to be expected that the Yamaha team principal bury the hatchet. He has logically gone off his hinges. Between an attack on their legitimacy as a questioning of their discernment, and to put it bluntly with the certainty of their incompetence, it is nothing to say that the Italian is attacking head-on an authority which has promised to finally open up to listening and dialogue at Le Mans, as part of the French Grand Prix…
This meeting in Sarthe is eagerly awaited by the drivers who have gone from mistrust to mistrust since the last Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez. A development that we feel in this declaration of Franco Morbidelli made after the notification of his sanction for having hooked up with Alex Marquez, which also led to the fall of Marco Bezzecchi : " I asked for an explanation, but I did not understand what was the basis of their thinking to judge my maneuver as ambitious. I would also like to know what they have to say and I wonder why these people can't justify their decisions to the media ».
Then he drops this sentence which shows how deep the crisis is: “ the FIM hides a lot of things from us and there is no dialogue with anyone, neither with the pilots, nor with the journalists. So I wonder how we could improve. They have their idea, the pilots have another and we don't exchange them ».
Maio Meregalli: “ we are even more convinced that they made a mistake »
Et Mayo Meregalli, what does he say about it? On motogp.com, he is, to say the least, direct: “ we went to see the race management because we didn't really understand why they had decided to penalize Fabio with a long lap. After talking to them, we are even more convinced that they made a mistake. They showed us the images and many different points of view and finally, they did not convince us that their decision was the right one ».
He adds : " I am disappointed because, it is certain, the race was compromised by their decision. Regarding Franco, in my opinion, they made another decision that was very, very open to appeal. Apart from this, we received information on television, incorrect information. It was all very unprofessional. ". On the appeal filed, he mentioned that the approach was above all a sign of moral support for his pilot: “ we appealed the penalty they gave Franco because we think they made a mistake and we really wanted to support our pilot because we felt we had to do it ».
He finishes : " unfortunately we can't do anything. They will also learn their mistakes. I'm pretty convinced that when we left race management, they doubted what they had decided ". Let’s meet at Le Mans to sort it all out…
