The Dangers of Liberty
Liberty Media, safety, riders, even Formula 1. Carlo Pernat, a historic MotoGP manager, talked about everything in an exclusive chat with FormulaPassion.it during the Mugello weekend. What worries Pernat is the drift that MotoGP is taking under the guidance of the American ownership: the issue of safety, which came back to the center of general attention after the dramatic accidents at the Catalonia GP, risks being underestimated by the riders themselves who are not sufficiently protecting their own interests.
“Liberty Media is already starting to think about city circuits. Phillip Island was removed because it was said that there were few people – a circuit that is wonderful – and it was replaced by a city track. When Dorna was in charge, Carmelo Ezpeleta made all the decisions with the riders. The riders always knew everything: it was Carmelo who invented the Friday Safety Commission. Now Liberty Media has arrived, the first decision was to hold the race in Adelaide and the riders knew nothing. This is a bad sign“.
Riders, wake up
But Pernat does not stop here in his criticism and, essentially echoing the words already spoken by Marc Marquez during the Italian GP weekend, warned about the complexity of having to face 44 races in a year: 22 GPs and 22 Sprints. “This format will surely be nice for the public, for the circuits because people also come on Saturday to see the race, but they are actually 44 Grands Prix – Pernat emphasized – because even if it’s a Sprint, it will be half as long, but when riders put on their helmets they race to win and accidents double, the danger doubles. And then there is everything around it: communication, advertising… today the rider has a full-time job. A championship today is worth three of the past, because back then there were 15-16 GPs, no racing on Saturday and many fewer interviews“.
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The drift that risks being taken, according to Pernat, is that of F1. And it is not a good thing, except for one aspect. The greater organization and unity that Circus riders seem to have, also thanks to the GPDA: “The important thing is that [in MotoGP] it does not all become a show like Formula 1. But in Formula 1 they are smarter, because for example regarding the Sprints they only do six. Because they know it is a danger, that risking doing a Sprint every weekend means not having riders on the starting grid on Sunday. You have to be careful, because the situation for the riders is increasingly dangerous. MotoGP riders should form an association. I have said it a thousand times and I keep repeating it: ‘be careful, because they use you as puppets’“.
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