Qatar is always Qatar. Always fascinating, with its lights, colours, skyscrapers with golden roofs and the night races, by day you dream among the skyscrapers and Aladdin’s golden rooftops and by night you are in the middle of a Fast & Furious race, maybe it’s the sunset that gives this race a hint of something clandestine. It feels like another world. And the bikes…they have a theatrical aura under the spotlights, as if they know that here, they’re racing on display.
We leave Qatar grateful, not for what happened but for what didn’t. Martin came out “almost unscathed” after the crash and being hit. Luckily, he was hit ten centimetres from the point of no return. It wasn’t the moment, it wasn’t destiny, call it what you want…In that handful of centimetres, tragedy could have been inevitable.
That’s why I started thinking about the famous “Misano” kerbs. In the meantime, the increasingly lightweight wheel rims, in the pursuit of performance at all costs, get bent and damaged and every time it’s a cost for teams. And then, perhaps, they were given the green light with too much recklessness. Born to protect, but too often the source of problems, they carry their own responsibility.
On the other hand, it must be considered that today’s riders have no rules. They know that beyond the corner there isn’t gravel, there isn’t a cliff and it becomes the “off-track festival”. There is asphalt, and that changes everything. Those who dare, don’t pay for it. Those who go wide, come back onto the track with no problems. Those who don’t make mistakes…what kind of advantage do they have? We continue to reward risk and penalize precision. I’ve been saying this for a while: a clear rule is needed. For example, if you go off the track you get one-second penalty. Otherwise – since we can’t introduce moats full of crocodiles – we go back to the good old gravel. Where mistakes have a price. Where every action on the track matters and teaches.
Qualifying remains our thorn in the side, too far behind, too often. Yet, we almost always finish the race in the top ten. It’s natural to ask ourselves: what if we started from the front? But races are never a matter of math or opinions, we prefer to leave fleeting judgments at the café.
Nepa went through a tough weekend. After a bad crash, which scared us a bit, he was declared fit and despite a battered foot, he didn’t give up. He kept going and finished the race in 8th position. Times are improving and his determination is strong, unlike his foot.
Lunetta, instead, is in the “I wish, I wish, I wish” phase, as Olly sings. But there is a risk, as the quote says: “Grasp all, lose all”. As of now, I don’t think he has a clear mindset and a rider, to be fast, must be light inside. If there are problems off the track, the track takes them all. I hope that his love ones will help him find that peace of mind that last year made him push, with lightness. He needs to get back that version of himself. To race out of duty, not to prove something, but for himself.
In the end, it’s the balance that everyone should find in life.
Laughing and joking, the first and much awaited European Grand Prix is here…at one of our favourite circuits: Jerez de la Frontera!
-PaoloSic58-