Last Sunday at 14:50 p.m. on the Chang circuit in Buriram, Marc Márquez celebrated his eighth world title by twirling as much as the thousands of confetti that surrounded him.
The battle with the one that everyone now considers to be his most serious opponent had been intense until the last of the 26 laps that made up the Thai Grand Prix and the Catalan driver was able to release the pressure to properly celebrate his total domination on this 2019 MotoGP season.
Much to his joy, the Honda driver had undoubtedly forgotten at the time the very big fall he had suffered two days earlier during the first practice session and the two hours spent in the Buriram hospital following this violent shock and his evacuation on a stretcher, his breath taken away and his body bruised…
Alpinestars, no, and has provided the data relating to what, not so long ago, could have, should have, had much more serious consequences.
According to the Italian firm's graph, the Tech-Air® system was triggered a little less than two seconds after Marc Márquez's loss of control began and, more importantly, a little more than half a second before the first impact. As one could assume from the images taken by the surveillance cameras, it was extremely violent, and the data indicates a fortunately very brief deceleration of 26,14 G during a fall which lasted 4,8 seconds.
In other words, at the time of impact, Marc Márquez weighed 26 times his weight... It is easy to understand that the bones and organs only very moderately appreciate this type of treatment!
With such a shock, without the safety equipment now obligatory for all Grand Prix drivers, the outcome could obviously have been dramatic.
Fortunately, the equipment manufacturers (helmets, leathers, Airbags, back and ventral protections, gloves, boots) but also the authorities (FIM, Dorna) continue to work to raise as much as possible the level of safety allowing all the enthusiasts that we are to live our sport with as little drama as possible.
In Grand Prix, zero risk will never exist but we would like to thank everyone who works to get closer to it!
