The latest intervention by manager and columnist Carlo Pernat shows that the Catalan Grand Prix which opens this Friday remains in shock from the disappearance of young Moto3 rider Jason Dupasquier. The 19-year-old Swiss succumbed to his injuries last weekend after a serious accident during the qualifying session for the Italian Grand Prix. A fatality which is linked to motor sports which, sometimes, take away its champions who succumb while accomplishing what is their passion, their reason for living, before being the cause of their death. We will never be able to do anything about this terrible dynamic triggered by a fall. But there is something to be said for managing the aftermath for those who remain. And at Mugello, there is food for thought…
A reflection initiated Charles Pernat in the columns of the site MOW. The Italian is not only a columnist and a former manager ofAprilia Racing. He is also the manager ofEnea Bastianini, new rider in MotoGP and Tony Arbolino, who this year is a rookie in Moto2. On the sensitive subject of the disappearance of a brother in arms, he recalls what brings everyone together on a circuit during a competition: “ those who do this job know they are in danger " Explain Feathered.
« When you are on an engine you know there is a risk. It happens for motorcycles, it happens in Formula 1 and for cars in general. But the pleasure and desire are so great that you don't think about it. Almost all sports are at risk, cars and motorcycles more so. We must admit that tragedies like that of poor Dupasquier can happen. If you think about it, every five years we mourn a pilot: Tomizawa, Simoncelli, Salom. It's dramatic and it's also cruel to say it, but it's part of the game ».
Then he adds with complete clarity: “ pilots want to have horses under their asses, otherwise they become sad. Of course, the death of a little boy leaves everyone stunned but this is the profession they chose. And when they chose it, they also knew that it was a very risky profession ».
That being said, this awareness of the danger of one's job, extinguished by the immense passion for doing it, does not prevent a minimum of consideration and sensitivity when tragedy arrives and impacts the pilots. It would even be an imperative. Which seems to have been forgotten Mugello last weekend. Even taken, no doubt, under the influence of good will and the desire to do well, a ceremony ultimately revealed itself to be an indelicacy which upset the pilots. Feathered explains his point of view as follows: “ if there really was something incomprehensible, for me, it was this ceremony for the pilots to commemorate their colleague. A quarter of an hour from the start of the MotoGP race. A thing absurd ! »
Pernat: “There is no place for fear in this world. But for sensitivity, yes”
« They didn't have to tell the drivers before the race » thinks the Italian. “ Let them start without saying anything, let them prepare as always, these are delicate moments. The pilots ride motorcycles that reach 360 km/h. I'm not the only one who thinks this way, Agostini and Petrucci also agreed with me ».
Then he turns to those who would not have wanted to run, like Aleix Espargarò ou Pecco Bagnaia : " I know Bagnaia well, he is a very sensitive boy. I understand him, I am with him. It's not about fear because those who are afraid cannot do this work. Lorenzo at a certain point started to be afraid, he had also said this in some interviews. A driver like him came tenth, fifteenth. Then it passed him by. There is no place for fear in this world. But for sensitivity, yes. I understand that a driver who has just been informed of the death of a colleague is not in the right conditions to race. This ceremony made no sense: it's like telling the pilots that it could happen to them right after ».
