His airbag did not deploy. He said after the race the zipper fell down and he couldn't get it back up hence chucking the chest protector since it wasn't going to stay in an opened race suit.
All that being said, he should have either come into the pits to address it, or he should have been black-flagged. The time penalty after the race was a joke. He tossed out his chest protector onto a live track in the middle of a grand prix. Could easily have caused another rider to crash out because of that stupidity.
Race Direction is run by clueless twits at this point. There was no reason to let him stay out there. What if he went down at 150 with the leathers open? It was for his own safety to black-flag him and they did nothing of the sort. It's gotten pathetic because 8 years ago, MM was black-flagged for being one lap out of the pit stop window at Phillip Island, and a genuine safety concern arose yesterday, and they did nothing. Phillip Island 2013 was far less egregious than anything yet the decision was made there to black flag. What is the proverbial red line at this point for a black flag? They've moved the goal posts so far that you don't even know anymore. Joe Roberts got that penalty last race for being what, an inch over the white line, yet Fabio was allowed to ride for 4-5 laps with his leathers hanging open?
Racers are notoriously bad at risk assessment. That's why he should have been black-flagged immediately.
It didn't just affect him. He threw his chest protector out on the track in the middle of a grand prix dude. Not acceptable. What happens if someone was coming through leaned over and hit it?
Also given a rider just recently died, it's not a good look to let one of the bigger names get away with a blatant rules violation because it sends the wrong message to all riders whether in that class, or lower classes.
If you offered a rider a bike that was capable of going 3/10ths a second faster than any bike on the grid, but it was extremely dangerous to ride if you get anything wrong, or you offer the rider a bike that is easier to ride, but offers no real distinct advantage over the other bikes, they'll always take option number one.
If they were so great at risk assessment, you wouldn't have a 8-times world champion purposely risking himself with crashes to find the limits of his given bike nearly every race weekend.
And here's the thing, if they were all great a risk assessment, they wouldn't be riding 220MPH motorcycles on the limit because regardless of safety protection, it's still a dangerous ....... sport. We just had a rider die in Moto 3.
The airbag did not deploy. The commentators thought it might have deployed, but it didn't.
He couldn't get the zipper back up unless he would have stopped the bike, which he had no intention of doing because he was trying to maintain the podium position. Contrary to warthog's claim that riders are good at risk assessment, they most assuredly are not because he was willing to put his own skin at risk literally if he went down just to maintain a podium position. He should have been black-flagged. It was a legitimate safety concern, and again, chucking the chest protector out on a hot track in turn 3 was monumental stupidity. It's easy to say it's no big deal because nothing happened, but that's with hindsight. When it happened my first concern was another bike coming into the path of the discarded protector and going down.
Fabio is 23 years old. He's still very young, and doesn't have the experience or knowledge to recognize he put other riders at risk and himself at risk. That is why Race Direction should have hung out the black flag. They didn't. That is a huge problem because it means that the rules are pretty much discretionary and subject to whatever whims are floating through the heads of those at Race Direction. Not a good way to conduct grand prix motorcycle racing!
Amigo,
Of course there is always the possibility of people seeing it happen as a result of power of suggestion. But I am 99% certain I could see Fabio's leathers ballooned out on the cool down lap.
The comparison between Robert's infraction and Fabio's is not apt. One had to do with the perception of gained advantage, while the other was about safety.
Quite possibly you might be right, regarding a choice of a bike with a slight advantage, but these riders are famous for being able to make fine distinctions when it comes to in the moment, microscopic adjustments to riding style, cornering speed, angle etc. to the point that they can drop back, the way a certain Aussie did today, watch his competitor for a lap and assess his weak spots, his strong spots and the degree of degradation to the competitor's tires, and then pull out 3 tenths at will, all done at astonishing speeds. That is Watson super computer style evaluation.
23 is really mature in racing years. Like everyone else in the sport, he started out racing mini bikes before he was 10. He's seen more crashes and injuries up close and personal than any of us armchair experts.
That they ride incredibly dangerous bikes, is no indicator of poor risk assessment. They know the risk and make a choice. by way of calculated
risk, to do something ordinary mortals in their comfy recliners, would never think of doing, because they want to exceed the boundaries of quotidian lives lived by the masses. And because, they are just so good at this. Sure MM
got a little too close to the sun, but if we had all gone Nanny State on him and insist he take less risk, but then he wouldn't have amassed all those
championships. Riders don't do what they do because they don't know the risk. They do it in spite of the risk.
Look back at the history of changes in safety in this sport. Most all the big changes were pushed for by the riders. Riders know what they need. I would note too, that there were no instances of other riders speaking out about this incident, because any one of them would have done the same in Fabio's position. And that is telling.
