Danger, hypocrisy, silence… The indecent attitude of the motorcycle Grand Prix authorities during and after Jorge Navarro’s accident in Australia raises many questions. The Spaniard said he feared for his life as he broke his thigh bone and the race went on for several laps just touching him. The tragic accidents due to collisions, which have always tormented the motorcycle sport and especially in recent times, should however make us reflect …
They all look gloomy, head down, anguished when it comes to paying homage to a driver who has not survived the injuries sustained following an accident on the track. Too often has happened lately, especially to young riders who evolve in the galaxy of speed managed by Dorna, organizer of the motorcycle Grand Prix. The last one, Victor Steeman, he was 22 years old when he was mowed down on 11 October in the middle of a fight for the Supersport 300 world title (a category already bruised by the disappearance in the same circumstances as Dean Berta Vinales, 15, a year earlier). Inevitable fatality of motorsport and motorcycle sports in particular, when a rider is hit by a competitor who cannot avoid him. This is the scenario feared by all speed pilots. French motorsport fans painfully remember the incidents that sparked the black series of the early 1980s that robbed France of its greatest talent of the time. More than 40 years later, we still cry Patrizio Ponshit at high speed on a dark Sunday in August 1980 at Silverstone by his compatriot Michele Rougeriehimself shot dead by another Frenchman, Ruggero Sibilleduring the 1981 Yugoslav Grand Prix.
It was a similar scenario that triggered a global cataclysm twenty years later, when a rising star in the premier category, Marco Simoncellihe had lost his life on the Sepang circuit (Malaysia) in 2011, he fell under the wheels of his friend Valentino Rossi, who could not avoid it despite his racing experience. The previous year, the same circumstances had won the Japanese Shoya Tomizawa during the San Marino Grand Prix in Moto2. The Japanese driver was 19, like the Swiss driver Jason Dupasquier when he was hit on the ground during the Italian Moto3 Grand Prix on May 30, 2021, never to recover. Two months later, it is the young man Hugo Millan, 14, crashed on the Aragon circuit in the European Talent Cup (Dorna’s formula for the search for young talents) after another driver’s car failed to avoid him. The Asian version of the Talent Cup, the Asia Talent Cup, had already been plagued in 2019 by the youngster’s fatal fall Afridza Munandar (20 years old) in the midst of a bunch of drivers on the Sepang circuit.
These tragic accidents, accumulated unbearably recently, have in common the type of accident that must be avoided at all costs: the collision. Also for this reason Dorna punishes so harshly – and precisely – the drivers who slow down during a free practice session to “take a wheel”. Also for this reason, faced with the concerns deriving from the tragic accidents that occurred to young drivers, sometimes minors, in the categories of access to the Grand Prix, the management bodies have taken the wise decision to raise the age of accession to the Grand Prix to 18 years. This is to limit the impatience of the young wolves, in the hope of reducing the risks of fatally inexperienced riders in races that often see more than 35 riders on the starting grid, when MotoGP has ten fewer. Because the enormous advances made in terms of safety by equipment manufacturers, in particular the airbag integrated into the driver’s combinations and made mandatory, are commendable but not sufficient to protect the drivers from collisions with machines launched at full capacity.
All this makes the scenario witnessed by those who got up in the middle of the night to watch the Moto2 Australian Grand Prix even more incomprehensible and unbearable. How to understand, how to accept the danger to the life of Jorge Navarro and the commissioners who rushed to the rescue of the Spanish rider, who fell and then hit by Simone Corsi on the 4th lap of the Australian Moto2 Grand Prix? Why wasn’t the red flag waved right away? Why wasn’t Navarro evacuated quickly in optimal safety conditions? Why were the drivers allowed to continue the race when one of them was on the ground, less than two meters from the inside of the corner, broken femur, helmet off? Why were the marshals exposed to such a danger? Why was there no official comment after this indecent scene?
“We did not understand why they did not put the red flag” replied – on the spot in Australia – the French journalist Michel Turco to the question of Margaux Levanto, columnist of the debriefing program After Sunday scandalized by this situation. In this same program, André Cazeneuve of the Paddock-GP saw in this lack of decision the will of the governing bodies not to cause a delay in the retransmission of the top program, the MotoGP, scheduled immediately after the Moto2 race and that a red flag would have inevitably disturbed. If so, it is simply intolerable that the life of a Moto2 rider, on the ground with a fractured femur, has been delivered within two laps to his 25 opponents who are still last in the race and touch him within two meters, simply alerted. from a yellow flag … And what about the marshals who bravely rescued him, also with their heads uncovered and threatened by motorcycles running at full speed?
“Unacceptable images that reveal an intolerable situation that they want us to forget”, writes Oléna Champlain on the Paddock-GP website. Because in fact the silence coming from a paddock is deafening and it knows how to make itself heard when it comes to sporting sanctions for nonsense. Recovered from his surgery and his emotions, Jorge Navarro he doesn’t mince words to describe the terrible moments he experienced on the track, when he couldn’t move because of his broken leg: “Hi everyone, I wanted to make this video to say that I’m fine, that my physical condition is improving every day , but I also wanted to let you know what I experienced on Sunday. Without a doubt, it was the scariest moment of my career and my life. Being so close to the track with the bikes passing by with the leg broken in half … It should never happen to none. thanks to Simone Corsi and to the commissioner who remained by my side. And also a big thank you to the medical staff of the circuit and to the Alfred hospital, who took care of me. While the governing bodies are silent, some rare pilots dare to express their views on the accident, such as Marco Ramirezcompatriot and opponent of Navarro in Moto2: ” I don’t understand. A rider one meter from the track for three laps after another bike hit him, in a dangerous place… What has to happen to get a red flag? “
British journalist Mat Oxley also raised the issue of Navarro’s evacuation delay for race reasons when every minute counted for such an injury.. “Keep Jorge Navarro in your thoughts today. He broke his femur during Sunday’s Moto2 race and was bleeding profusely. It’s possible his femoral artery was severed, which could lead to death within minutes if not stopped. He is hospitalized. Yet another “hit from behind by a driver” type accident. A sign of environmental exasperation, the Fox Sports website conveys the anger of motorcycle speed enthusiasts at the sight of a Jorge Navarro left “helpless in a frightening scene”. Simone Pattersonanother British journalist scandalized by the lack of reaction from the race management, believes he has an explanation after reviewing the images: “Looking at the incident I might be wrong, but it seems that one of the marshals is reporting that his radio is not working and another asks that the race be stopped “… The explanation could therefore perhaps be found in the amateurism of the organization … Which makes these deficiencies indecent in a sport that generates important revenues, and does not explain the silence that currently reigns in the heart of the suffocating MotoGP paddock …
