Contrarian Opinion
Safety Commission, no thanks. Fabio Quartararo did not align with the desire, expressed by several riders at the end of the dramatic Barcelona weekend, to have a greater dialogue and collaboration among them regarding safety issues. The Frenchman was naturally struck by the very bad accidents that unfortunately involved Alex Marquez and Johann Zarco in Catalonia, but evidently according to the French champion this is not something that can be somehow prevented or avoided.
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“No, I will not go to the Safety Commission. I think it’s… I mean, we are racing – said Quartararo speaking to the media scrum at Mugello – obviously if we were sitting at home on the couch nothing bad would ever happen. But in the paddock we all know we practice a high-risk sport. And two weeks ago I think it was the first time in my life that we had two red flags. Obviously, Alex’s accident was really an unlucky case. And Zarco’s is a situation that can always happen at the first corner, there was an element of bad luck. But I think in the end this is our sport. It’s hard to restart, but it is what it is. And I think we are here to race. We all know that tomorrow we could break a leg or an arm.
You can suffer a bad injury. It’s part of our job”. A brutal but honest analysis. And when explicitly asked if he thought there were important topics to discuss, the 2021 world champion was blunt: “No important topics [for me]“.
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Yamaha struggles, at Mugello with no expectations
Regarding his chances this weekend, the Yamaha rider is anything but optimistic: “Expectations? None, because for us it will be a really difficult weekend. I just want to try to enjoy it, that’s the most important thing for me right now“. The Diablo emphasized that what the M1 lacks to be competitive on this track is not just a good engine, but also other things: “To be honest, I think the lack of power is not the worst thing. The handling and grip we have are really poor. In the past the bike turned a lot and the grip was acceptable. But now we have neither grip nor handling, besides the engine, obviously“. Not exactly an idyllic picture. But don’t say that for him finishing seventh or twelfth is the same thing, not being able to aim for podiums or wins: “It makes a difference, because I prefer to see myself in the first part of the standings rather than the second”, he concluded with a joke.
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