First/Person Opinion:
By Michael Gougis
Even a master manipulator can get it wrong. Race Direction can get it right. And sometimes everybody just gets lucky.
After picking through the bones of Sunday’s MotoGP starting grid confusion at the Red Bull Grand Prix of The Americas, those are my key takeaways.
Nobody gets to be an eight-time World Champion just by being fast. Marc Marquez is always thinking and plotting–his mid-season off-track maneuvers last year got him the most desirable ride in the paddock and left many of his strongest competitors worse off.
Last Sunday, the Moto2 race was wet, and punished riders who chose slicks–American Joe Roberts among them. And as the MotoGP bikes were sent to the grid for the Grand Prix race, it was still drizzling on and off. But it was hot, so the track was drying; then it would drizzle and wet the track again. Most teams went to the grid on rain tires.
It is critical to understand that changing to a rain setup on a modern MotoGP racebike is not simple. Teams were swapping fork springs on the grid. Just pulling off the front wheel requires the removal of the brake discs and sensors. And the crew has to do this in a tiny cordoned-off area with a pile of tools, a starter, tire warmers, stands, and other equipment, and with a bunch of media types trying to do broadcasts or take pictures. There are often-clueless celebrities and VIPs milling around trying to get the perfect selfie. It is a crowded, confusing place for the riders and for the crew to make complicated changes to a very complicated racebike and to plot strategy. It’s easy for a well-meaning journalist to take a wrong step and accidently knock a rider sideways (sorry, Marc!)
As the civilians were clearing off the grid, Marquez was plotting. He was watching the weather and knew that rain tires were not the right choice, and that there was no time to switch the bike back to slicks. So he told the team to prep the backup bike in the garage, and just before the three-minute board was displayed he planned to bolt for pit lane, leaving the rain-tire-shod bike, the crew, and the stuff on the grid.
Other riders were thinking the same thing. Some were staring at the sky, knowing their team had made the wrong call on tires. Some were watching Marquez carefully when he oh-so-casually got off his bike and stood next to it. When he ran for the garage, it started a stampede. Half the other riders followed in his footsteps. Some said later they didn’t even know why they were running, but they have a deep respect for Marc’s machinations, and they figured that Marquez had figured out something.
Problem was, Marquez was wrong. To be fair, his team wasn’t exactly clear on the rules, either. Marquez thought that if he swapped bikes before the three-minute board was displayed he’d start from the back of the grid, which he would have been OK with. But he actually would have had a ride-through penalty, according to the rules. After a 2018 start-line fiasco in Argentina, the rules had changed to severely penalize MotoGP riders who swapped bikes to go from rains to slicks (or vice-versa) after the sighting lap. And the rains clearly would not have lasted the distance on Sunday. The riders on rain tires would have had to do a bike swap mid-race, costing them just as much time as a ride-through.
Marquez also thought that if 10 riders followed him, the rules required Race Direction to delay the proceedings and start everyone from the grid. But that only applies if 10 or more riders would be starting from pit lane–for example, if riders pulled in after the warmup lap and then headed back out when the race began. In reality, there was the potential for half the field to have ride-through penalties!
So with three minutes left before the start of the race, half the riders were running for the garages. (Poor Jack Miller gets to the Pramac Yamaha garage and found out that his backup machine was also on rains!) There were motorcycles abandoned on the grid. Maverick Vinales’ KTM shut itself off. There are bikes everywhere, crew members everywhere, stuff everywhere.
And this is where Race Director Mike Webb blew the whistle and brought proceedings to a halt.
Regardless of what the rules said, the situation was escalating into something dangerous. Riders who swapped bikes would have been charging down Pit Lane to get to the exit before it was closed, right at the time when crew members were trying to pull abandoned bikes and equipment off the grid. Motorsport history is littered with tragedies that have happened in Pit Lane. And being on Pit Lane just before the start of a MotoGP race gives a real perspective of just how chaotic it is under the best of circumstances. It is really easy to understand how easily someone could get hurt.
Webb did exactly what a Race Director should do–monitor a situation and take appropriate action.
Ironically, it was the chaos that Marquez sparked that ultimately worked to his benefit. Because Webb stopped everything on safety grounds and called for a quick restart, the teams had time to work on the bikes and everyone went with slicks and dry set-ups. And the grid reformed in its original configuration as per the restart rules. “They were very lucky to get away with that,” Webb said later.
At the end of the day, the three riders who initially gambled on slicks–Brad Binder, Enea Bastiannini and Ai Ogura–weren’t happy that they didn’t get to enjoy the benefits of their decision. But Binder’s bike shut itself off. Bastiannini finished seventh, more than 12 seconds down, and Ogura was ninth, more than 16 seconds back. If Marquez or Francesco Bagnaia had to serve a ride-through penalty or switch bikes, Bastiannini or Ogura may or may not have been able to hold them off. But it is likely that Bastiannini or Ogura would have finished higher than they did. So yes, the decision to stop proceedings did harm them.
Webb says the rules will be re-assessed in the wake of Sunday’s drama. And if there are penalties to be assessed, by all means, assess them. But Webb’s snap decision meant that I’m not here today writing a story about a pit lane tragedy. That’s a win in my book.
