The world champion said on Sunday: “There are no longer those 6-7 tenths that existed before between the factory bike and the customers. That difference was needed.” Spicy response from the GasGas team manager and IRTA number one
17 maggio 2023
It was and will be a phrase that causes discussion. I’m sorry Bagnaia he said it on Sunday afternoon after the accident he had with Maverick Vinales which ended his race.
Pecco answered this question: It seems that accidents are more and more frequent and increasing, how do you justify it?
“We’ve been trying to win in the first laps for two years, it happens that a rider who is behind, who perhaps doesn’t have the potential to stay in front, tries to pass six riders in one lap. But it doesn’t work like that: we are all on the edge, for the highest goal. If I (in a general sense, NDA) brake at the limit and you see it, it’s wrong to do something more, especially in the first laps. If you pay attention, the accidents are all in the first phase of the race: there is probably too much agitation. We should think about this thing, so it’s not safe. From the first to the last bike, everyone can win, there are no more those 6-7 tenths that were there before between official bikes and customers. That difference was needed: the fantastic four (Rossi, Lorenzo, Pedrosa, Stoner, NDA) were the strongest overall, but they also had the factory bikes and the others were further away, they didn’t have the potential to stay ahead even from a technical point of view. Now the level is extreme: everything is pushed to the limit and everyone has a chance to win. Today Augusto Fernandez was fourth: he is a world champion, but he is also making his debut. Certainly the race pace held, apart from Bezzecchi, was not very fast and this meant that the group remained united. It should back to having a little difference between the official bike and the customeror in any case find a solution to avoid certain situations”
The replica of Poncharal
Bagnaia’s words angered Hervé Poncharal who is at the same time responsible for the GasGas team and number one of IRTA, the association that includes all the teams on the grid.
At Paddock-GP Poncharal said: “We know the work we’ve done to be able to have one decent grill, we independent teams, with Dorna, with the FIM, with the MSMA, have managed to convince the manufacturers to give us high performance bikes, also in their interest, to promote young riders, to have a sporting policy worthy of the name , to get more feedback. And we finally managed to make almost all the bikes that were on the track official bikes of the year, apart from a few Ducatis that are one year old but are very efficient, but at least at Honda, in the Pierer Mobility group, we have bikes that are from 2023 , and I think it’s a fabulous situation!”
“Ed is fabulous – added Poncharal – see that the title race is wide open, that there is one point between Bezzecchi who is a young rider who arrives on a Ducati from a private team and who is one point behind Bagnaia, on the factory bike of the same manufacturer. It’s great for everyone, it’s great for sports.”
More on Bagnaia: “He forgets that when he arrived in MotoGP he was in an independent team, and he was happy to be treated with equipment that worked well and treated like a professional rider with professional mechanics. He said utter nonsense! Personally he shocked me a lot because he is unsportsmanlike. It is also a lack of respect towards his colleagues at VR46! It would be nice if you could talk about it with Bezzecchi…”
