Sunday in Mandalika didn’t go as expected for Luca Marini, who after starting from pole position, was taken out of the race by Brad Binder.
Despite Marini being understanding towards his teammate, he made his opinion clear about future penalties in case of more than one race incident, stating that it was strange for Binder to be double penalized and still achieve a good result:
– Yes, it’s a strange case that maybe happens for the first time. Many riders also crashed, but maybe we can talk a bit about penalties and the second one could have been a bit worse than the first, like in football with the yellow card and the red card. Something like that. Trying to think about this all together because we want more safety, as usual. This will be a point in the next safety commission, I think.
The Italian pilot of Mooney VR46 was also questioned about a possible pilots’ commission led by Sylvan Guintoli to help improve the show and the championship, and a minimum salary for all MotoGP grid riders, suggested by Johann Zarco:
– At this moment I don’t know very well how the situation is, because I missed Japan and in India I didn’t exchange so many messages by phone, so I’m a little behind in this (pilots’ commission). I know they are talking and that we are trying to do something good for the future and I hope everything can be good, because we also need help to put on a better show and make the sport better for everyone. It’s in our interest too. (…) I think it’s something very complicated. It’s a good option, everyone would be happy, especially me and all the riders from satellite teams, but I think it will be very difficult. But it’s true that now the stress and lack of time is unbelievable. A MotoGP rider is currently in a very complicated situation during the weekend, it’s never easy and if you’re good on the bike, the job is easier, but if you’re struggling and need to work spending hours in the garage, then you also need 4/5 hours a day outside the garage and it’s very difficult for us, but with more money of course all riders would be happier.
Finally, and following the idea of a commission and a minimum salary, Marini stated that he doesn’t think it’s possible to improve the format of MotoGP race weekends, saying that it’s also up to the riders to adapt to it, and if everyone had a Ducati, it would be easier:
– It is impossible at this moment to improve the format, in my opinion we just have to adapt better. From my side, since the beginning of the season I have understood everything better, I have a better plan and we manage everything in a better way. Of course, with more time, more experience we will be able to adapt even better, but in my opinion the format now is impossible to change, because it is something that is working and the Sprint races are also a good show for the TVs, for the people and all the fans. (…) We do not have enough time to work on it right now. In a Ducati I would say maybe we could come here on Saturday and do the Sprint, but for the other riders in the other brands it is not fair.
