Even before the World Championship starts this Sunday, the MotoGP teams have already faced each other in the offices. The focus of the controversy is the height regulators that Ducati introduced in 2019, first in the rear and then in the front, and that the Borgo Panigale brand no longer only uses at the start but also during the race, to gain acceleration and speed.
The suitability of these devices, whose handling involves extra work for pilots, has generated a debate in recent months. Some argue that its use can compromise safety, and that its legality does not fit into the current line of action, that which seeks to limit serious accidents as much as possible. In any case, the days of controversy are numbered once the matter has already reached the table of the Grand Prix Commission . This body brings together all the sectors that interact in the championship (the manufacturers, the teams, the FIM and Dorna).
Five of the six manufacturers voted this Thursday in favor of eradicating this type of component as soon as possible. Ducati, of course, opposed this measure.
According to what Motorsport.com understands, the lack of a quorum led to another scenario that raised only two alternatives from which a resolution is expected that may arrive imminently.
The first possibility is to immediately prohibit the use of the front regulator while driving, a very unlikely route due to Ducati’s frontal opposition and because there is no room for manoeuvre. In fact, this path could only be explored as long as there is evidence to confirm, with data and aside from subjective assessments, that these parts effectively compromise the safety of competitors.
The second, much more reasonable and that will surely be the one that ends up bearing fruit, would mean the abolition of the two height regulators, during the lap, from 2024.
At Ducati, obviously, none of them convinces, even though logic leads one to think that the Italian company is much more likely to accept the second option. “It’s a shame to see that the reaction of the other brands to a new Ducati innovation is to try to change the regulations to ban it,” agrees Paolo Ciabatti , Ducati’s sporting director, speaking to Motorsport.com . From the red motorcycle factory
That disparity of points of view was clearly reflected in Losail, this Thursday, in the press conference prior to the first test of this course.
“For me, these systems should be eliminated in the future. Manufacturers always want more, but we riders should all go together. It doesn’t make much sense that we seek to widen the loopholes and that, at the same time, the bikes run more and more in the straight lines,” declared Marc Márquez. Fabio Quartararo, the current world champion, commented along the same lines as Honda. “For me, things are starting to get out of hand, because of everything we pilots have to do. In 2019, in my first year, the start procedure was much simpler. Now you have to be aware of too many things,” he said. Yamaha, aligned with Joan Mir. “I’m with Fabio: it’s too much. On the straight, we’ll soon reach 370 kilometers per hour. It’s probably not the best in terms of safety”, commented the Spaniard.
Of course, on the opposite side we find Ducati. “In my case I only have to push a button, so it doesn’t give me too much work,” Pecco Bagnaia pointed out. Maverick Viñales, for his part, went even further, to the point of assuring that these tools can even contribute to an increase in security. “In acceleration I think that the ‘holeshot’ is positive in terms of safety. Depending on which corners, like the last one in Austin, where you accelerate from zero and the wall is close, it helps you,” the Aprilia rider clinched. .
