Famous Motogp Crashes – MotoGP circuit safety has improved immeasurably in recent decades. Although drivers crash more often than before – due to much tighter competition and, ironically, safer tracks and better driving equipment – the vast majority of injuries are minor, while deaths related to inadequate circuit safety are very rare.
In the last 35 years, only two grand prix riders – Daijiro Kato and Luis Salom – have died due to circuit safety issues, as MotoGP no longer visits dangerous race tracks.
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That’s why the Red Bull Ring has caused so much controversy over the past two years, with four races at the circuit and three red flags, including last year’s terrifying Johann Zarco/Franco Morbidelli incident, which happened centimeters away from seriously injuring Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales. .
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This year’s fiery pileup – Dani Pedrosa and Lorenzo Savadori – signaled the end of the current 2/3 turn layout: a 190 mph left followed by a 40 mph right. Next year, the section will be preceded by a medium-speed right/left chicane, removing the current Turn 2.
I have mixed feelings about this, as there were few more awe-inspiring sights in MotoGP than watching riders being challenged to the max by this sequence, which had them speeding through the left at close to top speed, braking, rear-end fishtailing. as they slowed to a dead stop to the right. But I also understand the dangers.
Ducati’s Jack Miller was always the best to watch there – using his two-wheeled ‘Scandinavian film’, a maneuver used by Scandinavian rally car drivers to reduce speed and control the car more efficiently.
Miller usually had his Desmosedic on its side between the two corners with the rear end out to the right, then used the momentum of the bike’s return to line to enter Turn 3. And he loved it. Most of the time.
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“When I’m alone, I love it – I have a ball,” the Australian said during the Austrian GP at the track in August. “But as soon as you have other bikes – with fenders and stuff – it’s a little bit trickier.”
“Chicans? Anyone like chicanes? ” he added. “But at least we can attack in turn 3. We can’t at the moment because as soon as you get out of line you start getting tanked, which can almost cause what happened last year. So we’re ready to take whatever we can to make it safer.
I asked the riders this question at the last races, but before COTA. The questions were asked during the daily discussions, so the answers will inevitably be the corners that most easily come to mind for the riders.
Miller’s first thoughts about the dangerous corners turned to COTA’s back straight. (Remember we had this conversation before the recent 2021 Americas GP.)
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“Maybe a little bit of back straight at COTA depending on how the bumps are now because last time we were there a lot of us had nasty tank slappers, almost at top speed,” he said.
The reason for this? Two years ago, Miller came close to disaster on the back straight at COTA, which was rebuilt for this year’s race.
“I almost killed myself in the back,” Miller said during his 2019 visit to the Texas venue. “I thought it was game over. The bike started slapping me with the tank and I literally had no idea what was going on – the feeling came off the pegs and by the end of the straight the brakes were gone. I had to pull the lever six times. And that’s the last thing you want at 350 km/h (217 mph).
COTA got back on the straight after the 2019 MotoGP race, but that didn’t stop the track from receiving huge criticism a few weeks ago for other rough sections.
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“It’s quite odd because the wall is quite close if something goes wrong,” he said. “Dorna is trying to make all the tracks safer, which I appreciate, but at the end of the day we ride motorcycles, which is a dangerous sport. You’re still putting yourself at risk no matter what you do, but we try to limit the risks as much as possible.”
Rossi was the man who came closest to being seriously injured or worse in the 2020 Zarco/Morbidelli incident at the Red Bull Ring, and he believes the circuit is generally dangerous.
“This track is dangerous because you have four braking points coming from 320 km/h [200 mph] in quite tight corners, that’s a problem,” Rossi said during the Austrian GP.
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“Assenis turns 6 and 7 and a very fast left turn [15. turn, Ramshoek]. They are all quite dangerous because you are very fast in those corners.
It is perhaps significant that Rossi chooses the left-hander at Assen’s Turn 7, as he crashed there during this year’s Dutch TT. His immediate reaction – sitting down in the gravel – seemed to speak volumes. Was this the moment he finally decided, “I’ve had enough”? After all, that’s what Jorge Lorenzo decided to do when he crashed there in 2019, breaking a vertebra.
“There are turns 2 and 3 and also turn 1, which is safe, but we often see that when riders crash on the exit, they end up in the middle of the track, so we need to understand that and improve safety,” he said.
“I can’t think of all the circuits now, but for example every time we go to Jerez the walls are too close and we hit the air barrier in a collision: in the corner where I crashed last year [Turn 3] and also in Turn 7 [after the fast left hairpin at the end of the back straight] and turn 10 [right at medium speed before the fast double right before the last corner].
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I asked Márquez what he thought of Portimao exiting Turn 8. It’s a right-hander followed by a steep and completely blind bank where Moto2 rider Aron Canet crashed at the Portuguese GP last year. Canet lost it before brushing an eyebrow, sliding down the hill, completely unnoticed by the riders behind him. He was on the ground, wheels hurtling past on both sides at over 100 miles per hour. Very scary.
“Yes, it’s dangerous, but it’s inside the red dot, inside the limit,” Márquez added. “Of course, a flat circuit is safer, but Portimao is more pleasant to drive! Finally, the most important is the drainage areas.
Márquez after his crash at Turn 2 at Silverstone which left rider and bike resting on the track at Turn 3
This year, MotoGP went to Silverstone after two races at the Red Bull Ring. On Friday, Márquez had a big crash at Silverstone at high speed at Turn 2, with the six-time MotoGP king and his bike back on track at Turn 3.
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Cal Crutchlow had the same crash a few years ago and most notably Loris Baz and Pol Espargaró crashed there on the first lap of the 2016 MotoGP race. Both bikes and riders came back to the track, missing the others by a meter or two.
No wonder this corner sequence was on Quartararo’s mind when I spoke to him during British GP practice.
“It’s very fast where Marc crashed today,” he said. “It’s bad if you crash there alone, but if you’re in a group, it’s very dangerous.
“I have to think more deeply about other angles. but I don’t think there are many tracks where we should do anything.
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Quartararo’s last words are those of a young man – ask him the same question in five or ten years and he’ll probably have more to say about circuit safety!
Petrucci came very close to being involved in a fiery Dani Pedrosa/Lorenzo Savadori crash during the Styrian GP in August when Pedrosa crashed out of the Turn 3 hairpin and Savadori went on the bike. His description of what happened is worth listening to.
“Turns 2 and 3 here are the most dangerous in MotoGP,” he said during practice for next weekend’s Austrian GP. “If you’re in sixth gear and you brake while tilting, the corner is very tight and you can’t see the way out when you’re in the middle of the corner, because it’s uphill.
“I saw him hit his head really, really hard and then the bike exploded in flames.”
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“I was next to Savador when he hit Pedrosa’s bike. I tried to pass him on the inside and when we opened the gas we found Pedrosa’s bike in our way. I saw Lorenzo hit the bike, I also saw him hit the back of his head very, very hard and then he exploded wheel in flames.
“It’s a pretty scary corner – when you go into Turn 1 it’s always difficult because you’re going there at 330km/h and it’s always cold and always windy.
“Of course it’s our job to do that, but to reduce the risk in places like Turn 3