until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
MotoGP’s riders assembled themselves for a first-of-a-kind behind-closed-doors meeting to discuss some of the biggest issues in the championship when they met on the Thursday night before the Catalan Grand Prix.
It’s understood the vast majority of MotoGP riders attended the talks in a meeting room supplied by MotoGP teams’ body IRTA, and did so alone without any members of their management or wider entourage.
They’ve remained tight-lipped about what was discussed – but a few have opened up to admit that it was a worthwhile exercise to gather the current MotoGP riders for a private meeting without team or series bosses.
The meeting is something that’s never really happened before in MotoGP despite being a semi-regular (if more informal) occurrence in other series like Formula 1.
Sources in attendance first revealed the meeting to The Race shortly after it concluded, explaining it was a chance for riders to gather without external pressure in an attempt to present a more unified face going forward when it comes to issues like contracts, stewarding and safety.
“It was good,” explained Pol Espargaro on Friday. “I think the plan is, this is not to go against anyone – just to… that our differences between the riders do not go against us.”
Asked if it was an attempt to get all the riders on the same page, he replied: “Yes, yes, that’s it. It’s just about talking, friendly, to rivals, without people in the middle. Like, truth, straight, and direct. It’s nice. It was nice.”
The decision to have the meeting, which took place 24 hours before the normal safety commission meeting which happens on the Friday night of every race with Dorna, FIM and IRTA in attendance, was the result of a WhatsApp group chat, according to Gresini Ducati racer Fabio Di Giannantonio, who echoed Espargaro’s sentiments about its usefulness.
“It was productive. It’s the first time that we did this. We are just trying to be a bit more close to each other, and try to improve our futures,” he explained.
“All together we decided to do it. It was, honestly, all together we just texted each other and we started to make this happen.”
He said the riders’ WhatsApp group has “a lot of stupid gifs!”, adding “it started like a super professional thing, and then it started with a lot of memes. But it’s OK. We are still young guys, so it’s normal!”
The meeting is not something that is – for now – planned as a more regular thing, but it’s nonetheless apparent that the exercise was deemed a success by those in attendance, with Aleix Espargaro (who topped Friday’s times at Barcelona) also among those praising the concept.
“I think it was necessary to have the group all together,” added MotoGP’s most outspoken safety advocate. “For example, after Silverstone, FP3 I think it was, we were quite angry because it was no red flag.
“It was difficult. Marc [Marquez] came to my motorhome to speak, to talk a little bit, but it was difficult to talk with the other riders, to know how they felt, it was very difficult.
“So I think it was necessary to have a group all together on WhatsApp and do the first meeting. It was not really a particular thing that we talked about, but was necessary, was good. Communication is the base of everything.”
WHAT RIDERS MIGHT HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT
There are multiple issues which were potentially addressed behind closed doors by the riders, some of which have in the past been aired by some of them openly.
Safety issues are likely to be a primary topic. In particular, the upcoming race in India already proving to be something of a bone of contention.
The old F1 venue at Buddh required significant improvement works to alter the track from a car venue to one suitable for bikes, and it’s not yet clear what the status of those modifications are, only three weeks out from the inaugural MotoGP race there.
And with circuit homologation set to happen only one day before the start of racing, riders have expressed concern about the track, with Aleix Espargaro in particular stating that he wasn’t prepared to ride at the track in its initial configuration.
Another topic which has become increasingly contentious in the paddock of late is riders’ contracts, with American Moto2 racer Sean Dylan Kelly this weekend becoming just the latest in a string of racers in the junior classes to be dismissed mid-season (and mid-contract) by their team.
