A14, 02.45 a.m. We’re on our way back from Aragon, the others in the car are snoozing while I keep driving, surrounded by the city lights and my thoughts…
The question has been the same for a while now: why do people keep trying, in every possible way, to ruin such a pure and simple spectacle? To break it apart and tell only half of the story, as if they had to sell people only half of what really happens. I can’t understand it.
Maybe it’s because I’m from another era, an old boomer, one of those who still believe, or better…still get emotional when thinking about the old legends. About personalities like Nieto, Pons, Biaggi…who made the history of this sport and are still its backbone today.
Today, when I think about how we want to teach this sport to children, making them believe that MotoGP is the only thing that really matters, it makes me smile.
Certainly, a World Championship title won in the premier class has a different and greater value than one won in the 250 or 125. But, if we start taking value away from those titles, those riders, those categories, what really remains of this sport’s history? First, you take away space from smaller categories, then you take away value from their champions…if you keep taking away, you risk losing important pieces of history.
This weekend, the Moto2 and Moto3 races were, once again, incredibly exciting. Real races, with close battles and riders risking everything up to the last corner. And yet, what did the (Moto3) TV director do? It showed only the first 4 riders, even when nothing was happening at the front. Meanwhile, the six or seven riders just 3 seconds behind were having some epic battles.
It feels like they’re trying to hide the most exciting part of these categories. Moto2 and Moto3 are becoming increasingly invisible. Less attention, less space on social media, less storytelling …Like something that should be put away. Maybe a little more financial support would be enough to allow Moto2 and Moto3 teams, to grow and reach the level of MotoGP. Because if we really want the spectacle, everyone should be put in the best possible conditions to deliver it.
Sometimes we forget one thing: these are lower categories, yes, but that does not mean they take less risk on track. These guys risk it all, with fast bikes, often very little room for error and the desire, the hunger and even a bit of recklessness that, at that age, pushes you beyond the limit. When they close the throttle, when they brake, when they enter a corner at 150 km/h, the asphalt is the same for everyone.
I ask myself how we can even think about reaching Formula 1 numbers, showing the audience only a 40-minute MotoGP race. People do not come to events only for MotoGP. They come FOR MOTORCYCLING, for everything that happens during a race weekend. For riders, for categories, for stories, for battles that often are not in the first part of the standings, but that are exactly what makes people fall in love with this sport. However, we keep going towards a paddock redevelopment where, time after time, Moto2 and Moto3 are isolated from the paddock, like plague victims. In a bit we’ll have separate toilets. Like the first and third class on the Titanic. We only hope that someone remembers that, in the end, on the Titanic, they all went down.
-PaoloSic58-