Marco Melandri is now a columnist for the media DAZN and, the least we can say is that he takes his new mission to heart. His positions at the end of the Grands Prix are often worth the detour because they are quite frank and clear, often with references to his past as a driver where he does not miss an opportunity to point out that decisions are not always made on the track... With this approach, the case of Fabio Quartararo during the last Catalan Grand Prix, with his open combination which led to sanctions, could not leave him unmoved...
Marco Melandri was released, so to speak, on the site MOW on one of the major racing events of the last Grand Prix of Catalonia and involving championship leader Fabio Quartararo. It is of course this combination suddenly opened a few laps from the finish, carried out without really slowing down with your chest in the air. The Italian does not deny that this posed a real safety concern: “ At first it seemed like a joke, I didn't want to believe it. It must also be said that he tried to close it several times, but to do it correctly he would have had to waste at least a few seconds. There were only a few laps left and in my opinion the driver is only thinking about not losing points, he is thinking about the championship. I understand: you only see that and you don’t calculate the risks. But falling like that, with the leather open, would have been truly unthinkable ».
On this subject, and several days after the events, we still do not know how Quarterly et Alpinestars got there. The pilot says that he did not carry out any prior maneuvers on his suit and the equipment manufacturer swears, after an initial analysis, that his equipment did not suffer any malfunction. The airbag did not trigger according to him, thus ruling out a hypothesis put forward by the paddock as a prerequisite for what followed. The mystery remains. Let us hope that the time card will not be the one played by the protagonists to impose, in fact, a law of silence.
But let's go back to Marco Melandri who, based on this unprecedented fact, develops one of his favorite subjects: a race management keen on political maneuvers: “ they penalized Fabio for cutting the chicane, which in my opinion should not have been penalized, because he also lost time. But they said absolutely nothing about security. So after the criticism, they also gave him a three-second penalty for the combination, and in doing so, they reopened the championship a little ».
Marco Melandri: “ Quartararo has frightening confidence »
« It was even more ridiculous: you, the safety officer, punish a driver for not behaving carefully, but you do it when it's no longer necessary because the race has been over for hours. They had to make him respect the rules during the race » thunders the Italian.
More Melandri is not worried about the rest of Quartararo’s season: “ it is the most complete driver. At Ducati they have a little more difficulty, also because I think there will now be tracks where the Desmosedici could suffer. Especially in Germany. Quartararo, on the other hand, is incredible, he drives with impressive ease. At Ducati, the best rider moves from one team to another, while at Yamaha there is always Fabio in front. And the Frenchman handled the problem on Sunday with incredible coldness. Forget for a moment the fact that it was dangerous, he started going fast again and overtook Miller with his open suit and all the technical disadvantages that come with it ". He finishes : " Quartararo has scary confidence, in my opinion he will be the favorite for the world championship ».
