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MotoGP
MOTOGP: Noyes’ Notebook - Dirty Dancing
Dennis Noyes comments on the 'Marquez Incident' and Race Direction's difficult task of ruling on 'irresponsible' riding.
(Photo: Honda Pro Images)
Last year I started a big article on the controversy over the late Marco Simoncelli’s style of overtaking before and after the ride-thru penalty in Le Mans. I intended to get some quotes from the man himself in Spain, but Marco never made it to Valencia for the final and the article, under the sad circumstances, was never finished. It was not the time to speak frankly of the tactics that caused Marco to be criticized, eventually, by all of his fellow MotoGP riders.
Truth is, Marco was guilty of some super aggressive riding along the way and paid for it by acquiring a reputation that probably contributed to the penalty that he received in Le Mans the day he sliced across Dani Pedrosa´s bow as if the little guy wasn’t even there. Almost every MotoGP rider and quite a few retired superstars concurred with that sanction, including Marco’s best racing friend, Valentino Rossi. But after that incident, the big Italian, who seemed destined for stardom and possibly a Ducati ride (maybe he could have tamed the beast) was just as aggressive, just as fast, but much more "considerate" when overtaking. The sanction, then, worked.
Now another rider, mild-mannered yet hard-riding Marc Márquez, has acquired the reputation of being a danger to his fellow man. But unlike MotoGP where hard passes are so rare that each one, if it happens at the front, is under extreme scrutiny, Moto2 is the motorcycle racing equivalent of the Wild West. If things look hairy up front, a look at what goes on downfield, invisible to the international TV feed, is not for the squeamish.
Márquez is an unlikely bad guy, and yet he has been called "Marc the Merciless" in the British press. There even seems to be certain resentment growing toward him as well because he is seen to be a young prince, surrounded by minders and supported by a team, CaixaCatalunya Repsol, with enough budget to run a frontline MotoGP effort and with a technical staff that would also be up to the task.
Captained by former 125 World Champion Emilio Alzamora, the team glistens in a paddock dulled by the worsening European economic crisis. Honda’s Shuhei Nakamoto has already said that HRC would welcome Márquez to step directly into the factory Repsol Team. And that may happen if the horse trading between Dorna and the MSMA requires some additional concessions by Dorna to make the new technical regulations more palatable. The current “Rookie Rule” that required rookie MotoGP riders to spend at least a year on a satellite or CRT team before moving to a full factory effort might be scrapped, allowed HRC to take Márquez directly into the Repsol Honda team, even if, for Honda, that means the geographic commercial imbalance of having two Spanish riders on the factory team. (Remember when the “geographical imbalance tilted the other way and Americans Wayne Rainey and Eddie Lawson were teammates on the Roberts Marlboro Yamaha team in 1990?)
Márquez won the 125 championship in 2010 after a season-long battle with fellow Spaniards Nico Terrol, Pol Espargaró, and Britain’s Bradley Smith and, had not several kinds of calamity struck at the end of the season in Australia and Malaysia (causing him to miss the final round in Valencia), few would have bet against him winning the Moto2 title in his rookie year as well.
Now, however, as the circus moves into Silverstone, he is second and just 2 points back of leader Tomas Luthi, or, if the FIM eventually reinstates the penalty imposed on him for "irresponsible" riding at the GP of Catalunya, he might actually be fourth and 18 behind Luthi and a single point behind both Andrea Iannone and Espargaró.
Truth is, Marco was guilty of some super aggressive riding along the way and paid for it by acquiring a reputation that probably contributed to the penalty that he received in Le Mans the day he sliced across Dani Pedrosa´s bow as if the little guy wasn’t even there. Almost every MotoGP rider and quite a few retired superstars concurred with that sanction, including Marco’s best racing friend, Valentino Rossi. But after that incident, the big Italian, who seemed destined for stardom and possibly a Ducati ride (maybe he could have tamed the beast) was just as aggressive, just as fast, but much more "considerate" when overtaking. The sanction, then, worked.
Now another rider, mild-mannered yet hard-riding Marc Márquez, has acquired the reputation of being a danger to his fellow man. But unlike MotoGP where hard passes are so rare that each one, if it happens at the front, is under extreme scrutiny, Moto2 is the motorcycle racing equivalent of the Wild West. If things look hairy up front, a look at what goes on downfield, invisible to the international TV feed, is not for the squeamish.
Márquez is an unlikely bad guy, and yet he has been called "Marc the Merciless" in the British press. There even seems to be certain resentment growing toward him as well because he is seen to be a young prince, surrounded by minders and supported by a team, CaixaCatalunya Repsol, with enough budget to run a frontline MotoGP effort and with a technical staff that would also be up to the task.
Captained by former 125 World Champion Emilio Alzamora, the team glistens in a paddock dulled by the worsening European economic crisis. Honda’s Shuhei Nakamoto has already said that HRC would welcome Márquez to step directly into the factory Repsol Team. And that may happen if the horse trading between Dorna and the MSMA requires some additional concessions by Dorna to make the new technical regulations more palatable. The current “Rookie Rule” that required rookie MotoGP riders to spend at least a year on a satellite or CRT team before moving to a full factory effort might be scrapped, allowed HRC to take Márquez directly into the Repsol Honda team, even if, for Honda, that means the geographic commercial imbalance of having two Spanish riders on the factory team. (Remember when the “geographical imbalance tilted the other way and Americans Wayne Rainey and Eddie Lawson were teammates on the Roberts Marlboro Yamaha team in 1990?)
Márquez won the 125 championship in 2010 after a season-long battle with fellow Spaniards Nico Terrol, Pol Espargaró, and Britain’s Bradley Smith and, had not several kinds of calamity struck at the end of the season in Australia and Malaysia (causing him to miss the final round in Valencia), few would have bet against him winning the Moto2 title in his rookie year as well.
Now, however, as the circus moves into Silverstone, he is second and just 2 points back of leader Tomas Luthi, or, if the FIM eventually reinstates the penalty imposed on him for "irresponsible" riding at the GP of Catalunya, he might actually be fourth and 18 behind Luthi and a single point behind both Andrea Iannone and Espargaró.
Grand Prix of The France
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