Jorge Martin’s unusual mistake, returning to the pits early at Misano to change bikes during the flag-to-flag Grand Prix, has rekindled interest in driver-pit radio communications, F1 style.
A topic already covered extensively in the past, even recently, by Carmelo Ezpeleta himself (HERE an interview from June 2023) who had anticipated the system’s debut as early as 2024, that is, today.
Nothing new under the sun, therefore, even if, as always, at irregular intervals the ball is thrown back into the center on the subject with the excuse of rekindling the interest of viewers, especially television viewers.
Motorcycling, however, unlike car racing, has different dynamics. The driver is not comfortably seated in the cockpit but is rather a monkey hanging from a trapeze. Speaking is difficult, but so is receiving, because even a minimal distraction at a key moment could lead to unwanted results.
Technically it wouldn’t be a problem and to realize this ourselves recently – for fun – we tried to simulate the situation in a test at Vallelunga with Cardo.
Would it be useful, after various experiments, which began many years ago with the contribution of the former pilot Gianni Rolando, to move on to the facts? The answer is ‘neither’.
“In wet conditions, especially like those of the Misano GP, it is the rider who decides what is best, and we don’t know it completely either, while it is absolutely impossible for the team to know what the track is like,” Marc Marquez said when asked about it in a press conference, adding, “the rider decides based on his feelings. Of course, if you go from wet to dry, the team’s communication can be useful because it can tell if someone is faster, if it’s time to come in, if it’s time to stay out. But when you go from dry to wet, it’s always the riders who decide. The radio box could be positive for the show, and in this case I’m in favor, but for the essence of the sport I’m not. It’s true, however, that we are here for the show, and for the people at home it can be more interesting.”
Pecco Bagnaia also had his say on the subject.
“Of course it depends on how they can do it and develop it, that kind of thing. But we already have all the possible inputs on the track, from the pits and a lot of information on our dashboard. So, I’m not in favor of it.”
On the same wavelength, jokingly remaining on the subject of radio, also Enea Bastianini who observed how an incredible step forward should be made by the pit wall to evaluate the conditions of the track better than the driver.
“Whether the sensations are good or not, depends on one rider to another, on what is happening in that situation – said Enea, who added – I think the guys on the team are not able to say what the real condition is. Only we can say that. We should be much more technological to have more information than us who are on the bike”.
So what would have changed, in the case of Misano in question for Martin? Probably nothing because no one in the pits, given the sudden change in weather, would have felt like giving the driver appropriate information, shifting in this case only the responsibility from the driver to his pit.
It is true that the teams could place ‘observers’ with radios at various points on the track, but in any case they would not be in direct radio contact with the drivers, so there would still be a certain delay, also because in many points of the track it would not be allowed to communicate anyway, think of the 250 km/h bend, for example.
Furthermore, the driver, at the key moment of the downpour, certainly has more information on the condition of the asphalt, on the grip and on the behaviour of his colleagues, so what?
Marc Marquez is right when he points out that for the very essence of the competition it would be like taking something away from the rider’s instinct, therefore a bad thing, when we already have criticisms about the invasiveness of electronics.
Our conclusion is that currently Dorna, or in the near future Liberty Media, are making too many mental wanks about the spectacle and how to increase it with solutions that are not only of dubious effectiveness, but also dangerous or that in the best of cases would lead to an even further devaluation of the genius of the pilots.
Instead, they would do better to question the quality of their management, the lack of real interaction between the main sponsors and the public, and in this sense the almost total lack of investment by the main financiers who, currently, limit themselves to placing their logos on the fairings.
Photo © PierLuca Brunetti
