Smith: Virtual pit boards 'just another way to manipulate series'
Bradley Smith has spoken out against the proposed introduction of dashboard communication into racing situations, and believes it will take a 'natural' element away from future MotoGP encounters.
The move, that allows teams to send basic messages to riders' dashboards - virtual pit boards, as the Grand Prix Commission has called it - is a move toward F1, in Smith's eyes, and it will somewhat dilute the excitement of future flag-to-flag races.
MotoGP riders agreed in the Safety Commission meeting at Assen to bring this technical element into races from the German Grand Prix onward, and, earlier on Thursday, Aleix Espargaro revealed Smith was the only man strictly opposed to the measure. "Everyone was in favour except Bradley," said the Catalan. "He was completely against this."
Smith even went as far to deem the introduction "another security net to manipulate a championship" to ensure the podium regularly features the "guys on the best bikes" in these conditions, that regularly throw up exciting, (and more often than not) random results.
"I'm opposed to the fact that the guys want messages that allow them to interfere with the race," said Smith. "The race should be natural, the race should be the riders' decision, and it shouldn't actually become like Formula 1, which can be dictated by the teams and strategies and stuff.
"Because what's the point in that? So if you're going to do that, you might as well put radios in our ears as well. I honestly don't understand the whole concept behind it, so I was against it for that reason.
"To make the strategy and call the strategy and judge on track conditions, and if someone makes a better strategy, that's for them to benefit from it, not for the team to say and then bring them in.
"Some of the best racing we've seen this year is because the riders have made the wrong strategies, and it's given other people the chance to jump on by. That's how I see it.
"At the end of the day, why have a flag-to-flag race, if you're going to have team strategies getting involved? You might as well red flag it and restart the race again. There's no point having a flag-to-flag race."
Is this a key reason why certain riders are behind the move, to negate the random element of flag-to-flag results?
"Yes, of course," came Smith's reply. "Because it helps them save their championship! It's just another security net to manipulate a championship into the guys only finishing on the podium are on the best bikes.
"Where it should actually be that certain advantages come when a person makes a right call. And why did they make the right call? Because the championship didn't mean anything to them, they took a gamble and it paid off.
"Now, because I took a gamble, why should they benefit two laps later or one lap later, when they're told, oh yeah, you can come in. At least allow a rider, like myself in previous years, to take those gambles and see if they pay off."
Cal Crutchlow was another rider against the idea, stating, "You know me, I'd rather race out the back of a van and get back to old school stuff. So dash messages...the less [technology, the better]."
Arguably Smith's finest showing in MotoGP to date came at Misano, 2015, when, in the midst of a rain shower, he stayed out on track on slick tyres while the majority of the field pitted twice - once for wets, then slicks - as conditions drastically changed from dry to wet and back again in a baffling 20-minute window.
Then aboard a Tech3 Yamaha, the Englishman ploughed on, securing a sensational second place - his best result to date in the premier class. Smith cited this race - a truly remarkable performance in a wonderfully abnormal encounter - as reason why flag-to-flag races, in which riders have to think on their feet, and judge conditions as and when they change, should remain untouched.
"Even [Loris] Baz [who finished fourth in that race]! Baz had a chance at winning or getting on the podium that time. And Baz made it all himself. He came in, he went to wets, he saw in two laps that it was drying again, came straight back in again. He came out in second position in the race and then got hunted down.
"But he made the right decision. Now, when would Baz on the Open bike ever have had a chance of battling for P4? And he would never have had that chance had they done this.
"Same as the race [at the Sachsenring] last year, Marc won by 40 seconds. Why? Because everyone else was idiots! And that is the truth of the matter, everyone else was idiots and no one else came in. Now, that's for them to make the judgment themselves, not for the team to do it.
"If not, put radios on! Put radios on and just make the race into a strategy, boring, and so on. That's not about safety, that's just about securing race outcomes with the best strategies.
"Because in the end, you're going to pay a strategist or something to come up with the ideal strategy over the next two or three races, or you have a protocol or something like that. Just adding more too it. Just for once or twice a year, let a race be kind of natural and a bit funny. You don't have to win every race.
"That's why gambling is so popular in the world, that's why people do it. Because you're giving a person who has an unlikely chance, a chance of winning something they would never finally get their hands on. That's what makes millions of pounds a year all over the world. So don't take it away from MotoGP."
