Riders given Indian MotoGP safety update: ‘Better than they thought’ but...
MotoGP’s debut at the former F1 circuit is now just two weeks away and there have been concerns over the lack of runoff in some areas.
“Well, we saw some videos. There are 2-3 corners where the wall is quite close,” said Alex Marquez.
One solution might be to slow down or change the angle of some corners by adding kerbing to the track surface, as is done to sharpen the last turn at the Red Bull Ring.
“They will paint the kerb like in Austria, more inside to avoid that [close walls]. Actually, I think it's not the best solution because we’re in the world championship, as I’ve said many times, not in a regional one," Marquez said.
“But apart from that just Turn 2 is the one that we are more worried about, because Turn 2-Turn 3 are quite close to the wall and that is no solution. So we'll see when we arrive there.
“They did a really good job. But we need to see if it's enough.”
“If we arrive there and it's safe to ride, we are the first ones who want to race," the Gresini Ducati rider added. "But we need to be really, really clear on that point. If it’s safe or not. And we'll see in FP1 when we are on the bike.”
2021 world champion Fabio Quartararo wasn’t too concerned by the proximity of the walls from the video images. However, he also acknowledged it’s hard to draw conclusions until being on the bike.
“If we need to race in India, I go. But to be honest, I expected - we were talking about the walls, but on the video looks like it was quite OK.
“[The surface] was really dirty. The kerb looks like it's from 50 years ago. But in terms of safety, we have to see it for real.
“Also because if the camera [angle] is really open, maybe the perspective is not the same and with the speed.
"But I expected it worse than that.”
Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro missed his first Safety Commission meeting in five years due to a whiplash injury in practice but said he was updated by others present.
“I talked with some riders. They told me they’re really working hard [in India], changing things. It looks better than what they thought.
"The riders, we’re going to talk on Thursday [at the Grand Prix] all together, after seeing the track.
“Like I said, I want to believe that Dorna is working for our safety.”
Luca Marini was less impressed.
"Same as before. Everything is there, like it was before, for them [other riders] it is OK. We will see if some rider crashes and hits the wall if there are no consequences, maybe.
"Maybe nobody crashes, it is all good and we wait. That’s it."
