En MotoGP, it is common to hear enthusiasts question the impartiality of the governing bodies, in particular of Dorna, but no, it does not happen as you think!
Who has never heard, or even uttered, sentences like
“It’s normal, Márquez is Spanish, like Dorna” ou “He barely touched the green, the Race Direction penalized him for nothing! » ?
There generally follow endless discussions incriminating the governing bodies, Dorna, FIM, IRTA, but also the dominant brands or teams, or even the major sponsors who give wings, thus bringing us dangerously close to conspiracy theories. …
In an attempt to shed light on the functioning of the Grands Prix and the incredibly complex organization that they require, we have entered for you some of the most sensitive places, during the last Grands Prix in Valencia.
Concerning the progress of a session or a race, the most sensitive are the two rooms which ensure that it runs smoothly. Yes, two, because we must not mix rags and towels, in this case the Race Direction which mainly ensures safety on the track, unlike those who, under the direction of Freddie spencer, are there to punish infractions…
Access the first part on Race Direction here
2/ The FIM MotoGP Stewards
Who is in the FIM MotoGP Stewards’ room?
One floor higher, the second room is isolated, which allows the FIM MotoGP stewards to be completely independent and not be under the influence of people like Loris Capirossi et Franco Uncini, former drivers now working for Dorna Sports and the FIM, and who could push to sanction drivers in the name of safety and to the detriment of racing action. The people who work in this room are therefore totally independent in their decision-making. Any sanctions are decided here according to a pre-established scale, then transmitted to the Race Direction room which simply applies the penalties.
Concretely, Andres Somolinos et Tamara Matko permanently represent the FIM, Freddie spencer IRTA with the role of President of the Commissioners. So there are no Dorna representatives in this room, and even if Tamara Mother is the companion of Bartolome Alfonso Ezpeleta, this does more than send to oblivion suspicions of decisions taken by favoritism…
For the record, Andres Somolinos is the person who developed the Spanish Speed Championship, which later became the CEV and then the JuniorGP. He has known almost all the Spanish drivers since they were kids, and they have a deep respect for him and his decisions.
More curiously, Freddie spencer serves as a lightning rod for criticism, because if they are not spared him, the former pilot hates to penalize!
A legacy of another era, for him any “manly” action is a simple act of racing, and only the sad spectacle of the drivers waiting on the track to be able to take a wheel finds favor in his eyes for a sanction. Here again, reality and bistro discussions are a bit poles apart...
What is the job of the FIM MotoGP Stewards?
Fortunately for some, unfortunately for others, “racing events” are relatively rare, and most of the work today consists of ensuring that the debates take place on the authorized track, i.e. on the asphalt and on the curbs. The latter are gradually being replaced by the recent “Misano 200” which, by wasting drivers’ time, no longer encourage them to ride on them. This is also why in Valencia, during testing, you were able to see many drivers go out on the green at turn #1: having driven on the Misano 200 curb on the outside, they knew that in any case their turn was lost!
To detect intrusions into the green, a hose is unrolled almost at every turn, with a sensor cable inside, which triggers and records three or four cameras while triggering an alert in a table. After viewing the recordings, the commissioners make their decision based on the importance of the infraction (improvement of the time or not, discomfort of a driver, etc.).
Until this system was put in place, there were up to 2000 offenses per weekend to be judged live and “by eye”… Suffice it to say that we missed a lot and that errors had to be made. be frequent!
Now, so as not to miss anything, Freddie spencer and his assistants have a magical tool, an operator with a super joystick controlling all of Dorna's cameras and the circuit's internal cameras. In Valencia, this meant no less than 69 cameras! We’ll come back to that…
Alongside the implementation of this system, all motorcycles are now equipped with new GPS transponders which allow them to be followed in real time on the track. Previously, between two checkpoints (loops in the asphalt), it was an estimation of their position (like on Waze in the tunnels), and it sometimes happened that a motorcycle fell but we could see it continue on the electronic layout of the circuit. Now his avatar actually reports his real location.
Vibrators, track departure detection, electronics, all this clearly shows that the improvement of tools is constant, always in the name of greater efficiency and safety.
It is also in this room that team representatives come more and more often to demand a penalty against opponents, an approach far from the cameras which tends to amplify and which is not the most beautiful part of the Grands Prix…
What is the atmosphere like in the room?
There, the atmosphere is completely different from the first room. Everyone is on alert, most people are busy monitoring the runway exits. But we were “lucky” to be present in this room when an incident occurred. In this case, it was a collision, in the final moments of Moto3 qualifying, between Philip Farioli (Red Bull KTM Tech3) and Ryusei Yamanaka (GasGas Aspar Team), bringing both pilots to the ground.
After ensuring that the two fiery hopefuls were standing, yellow flags being required, some of the people set about the task of checking that the times were slower than in the previous round.
But during this time Freddie spencer, he, leaning forward in front of his screen, is totally focused on finding out what exactly happened...
After about ten freeze frames, forwards, reverses, for several minutes where the "joystick 69" operator is really put to the test, the former pilot who forged his deep conviction returns to our world and turns to his colleagues to declare with a laugh “ it is he who makes the mistake and it is he who insults the other”.
After this in-depth analysis of the images, it turns out that the Italian began to slip a few fractions of a second before hitting the Japanese, but this will be considered as a simple racing event by " Fast Freddie ».
Otherwise, the sanction established in this room would have been transmitted to the race management for display as quickly as possible on the scrolling banner at the bottom of the stream broadcast on our screens.
As we can see, Dorna therefore has little to do with the different sanctions imposed on drivers and in no way favors any particular driver or team. Sorry conspiracy theory fans… 🙂
