In the vast majority of cases, the athletes who are the subject of our articles share neither their religious convictions, nor their political sympathies, nor even generally their opinions on any subject other than sport.
Of course, since the appearance of social networks, the current trend is to share part of one's life with one's fans and some pilots have gradually made it a specialty, publishing daily, mainly on Instagram, but everyone puts the cursor of his private life wherever he likes and, generally, the personal opinions of pilots are as absent from the Internet as the waves on a pond on a peaceful summer night…
However, Covid-19 seems to be the subject which has undermined this neutrality worthy of our Swiss friends, first of all with Johann zarco. On two or three occasions, the Frenchman expressed some doubts about the veracity of the overall political-medical discourse (doubts that can be found in some of his daily debriefings) before deciding to keep his beliefs to himself and no longer talk about them to the press.
Then came Xavier Simeon...
For a little over a year, the friendly Belgian driver of the Yoshimura SERT team has shared on Twitter first of all his questions then gradually his stated convictions regarding the overall vaccination policy. Today, due to the winter break, his account with the Blue Bird contains much more comments from Florian Philippot and Fabrice Di Vizio than direct or indirect information on his professional activity. At least we know what he's thinking...
This is a fact, and we have no opinion on the merits of this originality which nevertheless gives rise to a more general question: in the current world of hyper-communication, the personal publications of a professional pilot must- will they remain completely free or be subject to a certain reserve regarding certain so-called sensitive and divisive subjects, such as politics or religion, but also major social debates?
As a reminder, the Grand Prix riders have all made a written commitment to Dorna Sports not to harm the image of the MotoGP championship. As far as their team is concerned, it is on a case by case basis but most contracts also include a clause to this effect. Hence communication is generally always measured, even positive. It's the same thing in Formula 1, and that hasn't stopped Lewis Hamilton to bring, first of all forceps and then with the agreement of the sports authorities, the light on the “Black Live Matter” movement…
So, Xavier Simeon Will it remain an isolated case in the motorcycle world that has so far been spared, or will we one day see opinions appearing on social networks, or even the podiums?
https://twitter.com/xaviersimeon10/status/1478501766761222148
