MotoGP will move to implement their new LED light panels sooner than anticipated, responding to rider feedback about the new system by confirming that the lights, used alongside flags to signal to riders, will be rolled out for the remainder of the 2021 season.
Motorsport engineering company EM Motorsport will provide 22 panels that will travel the world with the MotoGP paddock, beginning at this weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix at Portimao, where the set-up work has already been completed.
The plan for MotoGP now travelling with its own set of panels, a move that replicates F1’s efforts, is that every circuit can utilise the technology, not just the few (including Qatar’s Losail and Le Mans in France) where it has already been installed.
From 2022, it will be mandatory for MotoGP venues to install the panels permanently in a joint move from the FIM and FIA to increase the speed and visibility of circuit status to riders – but the current move marks a chance for tracks, race control and the racers themselves to become familiar with the technology in the interim.
The introduction of the light panels was led by a number of riders due to concerns about flags not being visible at extreme lean angles, with Valentino Rossi among those calling for MotoGP to follow F1’s lead.
“A lot of times we don’t see the yellow flags because they’re very far from the track,” said Rossi last season. “Fortunately in MotoGP we have a lot of run-off areas, and at tracks like Jerez you’re always on the edge of the bike so it’s very difficult to see them. They need to improve the system and to use light panels like in F1, so that it’s easier for the riders to see them.”
