The abuse of the pilots for years exceeding the limits of the circuits led the MotoGP World Championship to implement stricter regulations in this type of situation. During a race, if a driver steps on ‘green’ three times he receives a warning, and if he reaches five, he is penalized with a long lap . If on the last lap a rider exceeds the limit once, he automatically loses a place, as happened to Joe Roberts on Sunday, who finished third in the Moto2 race and was taken off the podium before his face of astonishment and disbelief when he was already on his way from the parc fermé to collect his well-deserved trophy.
But the most notorious, without a doubt, was the one experienced by Jorge Martín last year at the Moto2 Styrian Grand Prix , when he stepped on the green paint that marks the limit of the track on the last lap and the victory was taken away from him, which it ended up in the hands of Marco Bezzecchi , coincidentally the same driver who took the podium on Sunday to the detriment of Roberts. Even then, Martín was forceful: “I hope that the World Championship is not decided in Race Direction.”
The World Championship has upped the ante this year, and places electronic sensors in the corners in which they consider that time can be gained by exceeding the limit of the circuit, as a ‘sneak’ to warn the stewards that the pilot has stepped with both wheels off the asphalt.
In Sunday’s MotoGP race, the stewards panel also sanctioned Miguel Oliveira , second at the finish line, and Joan Mir , third, for exceeding the limits of the track in the last lap.
The confusion came when after announcing the penalty to the Portuguese, who was lowered to third position, raising the Spanish to second, the action was re-arbitrated to, after a few long minutes, also penalize Mir for the same foul, in the same round and at the same point.
The stewards justified the delay in that they had no frontal images to prove that Mir had stepped off the track, and had to resort to the onboard camera that Oliveira has on the back of his KTM . Surreal. In the end, the Solomonic decision was made to leave the podium as it was at the beginning and leave Johann Zarco , who finished fourth, wondering why he did not go up to the box.
Joan Mir appeals to the human factor
“On the last lap you have to be very careful, because there are places where you inevitably step on the green”, explained Mir at the end of the race.
“In the case of the track limits, margins have to be set, because otherwise we would reach the grass. It is important that the one who makes the decision is a person, a rider”, admits the Suzuki rider, aware that there have to be limits and rules.
However, the stewards panel did not address the concerns of the driver and his team when they asked for a reason for the sanction.
“It’s frustrating that you can’t appeal, that you can’t even give your opinion. We give everything during the weekend, and that by a millimeter you can lose the podium, it’s not fair. I applaud all the penalties that are for safety, but I am a rider and I think there are things that are not fair”, maintains the MotoGP champion.
For Mir, in addition to the technology of the electronic ‘sneaks’, he considers that a human review should be carried out to establish if there is a profit in the action.
“There is a lack of human factor in decisions. In Race Direction there are ex-pilots and they have criteria. If you look for the human factor, you usually can’t go wrong. Of course, if there is an advantage, you have to penalize. More than anything, because if you pull back, there would be many things that should be checked, ”says Mir, who is still waiting for Race Direction to explain what happened at the Doha GP when Jack Miller jumped on him in the middle of the straight.
Maverick Viñales asks for more flexibility
Nor did the Yamaha rider see anything fair in the action that ended on Sunday with Joe Roberts out of the Moto2 box at Mugello.
“We have seen how they have taken a podium from a pilot again, in this case from Joe Roberts, and he has not done anything wrong either, he has touched slightly, a little, the green and there you do not gain anything, you do not gain time”, he explained. Maverick told Motorsport.com when asked about the tracks limits .
“Personally I think you have to better understand the situations when you step off the track. For example, today (Sunday) in the race I went off at turn 9 and it was clearly a track limit , because I went completely off the track. But Roberts was going over the piano and all of a sudden the piano is over, it’s not like it’s out. What happened to me in Portimao was a totally different action, I left the piano, more than half a wheel. But Roberts has just run out of the curb and onto the green,” argued the Yamaha rider.
Maverick holds a similar idea to Mir , that the stewards should judge with the human eye.
“You have to look at this type of action, because Joe Roberts has not won even half a tenth there, and he has lost the podium. I think you have to be more flexible or make some ‘exception’ to the rule, because the waitress annoys you without gaining anything”.
Viñales fully agrees that there should be rules and that pilots who clearly exceed the limit of the track be persecuted in order to save time. But be more sensitive with cases that are at the other extreme.
“If you look at the image, Roberts puts the bike completely straight, if he had knocked it down a bit he wouldn’t have stepped on the green, so he didn’t do it on purpose. They have to try to be more flexible. They can’t take a podium from you without having gained time”, insists the Costa Brava runner.
Reflections of two world champions that, surely, the panel of MotoGP stewards would do well not to let them fall on deaf ears. The track boundary rule must exist, and must be rigorously enforced, but must be made fair by the referee’s ‘interpretation’.
