Rossi calls for introduction of race radios

JPSLotus · Jul 25, 2016

This was briefly discussed but MCN is regurgitating it as news since there's not much else going on.

One of the calls Valentino Rossi made in the aftermath of last week’s disastrous German Grand Prix for him was for the potential introduction of ship-to-shore communications as used extensively in the car-racing world.

Last tested by MotoGP nearly a decade ago, Rossi says that it would potentially make the sport safer by allowing pit crews to tell riders when they’re able to back off.

“This is not Formula One, but if we had the communication with the box it would be a lot easier. Sometimes with the pit board it’s difficult – in Assen, if they had told me I had already two seconds of an advantage I could have slowed down and not made the mistake. I don’t know why we don’t have, but it could be important to have it in the future.”

However, his suggestion was quickly shot down by championship leader Marquez, citing the oft-used defence that the lack of communication is something that helps make motorcycle racing unique.

“I cannot imagine being fully leaned over at 200kph and having someone speaking in my ear! This is not car-racing, and if you don’t have a good plan before the race you know about it. In our team, we always have a clear plan; it’s something we work on a lot after I was disqualified in Australia in 2013!”

MotoGP: Rossi calls for introduction of race radios | MCN

Are there any circumstances having radios would even be warranted?

I can't see it as being reasonable in any situation. GP has managed to be unique compared to the rest of the race series in that it's essentially unchanged with how information is obtained. The pit board still remains the only way of a rider getting any information in the middle of a grand prix. I'd prefer it to stay that way permanently. If anything they need to start removing the electronics from the bikes.

Rossi_fan · Jul 25, 2016

I don't agree. There's no place for radios in MotoGP. Rossi is wrong and just saying that because he would have won a race or 2 more with a radio.

Richy56 · Jul 25, 2016

It's BS. That's why bike racing is great, it's rider and machine. It's up to the rider to make a decision

JPSLotus · Jul 25, 2016

Rossi_fan said:
I don't agree. There's no place for radios in MotoGP. Rossi is wrong and just saying that because he would have won a race or 2 more with a radio.

Agreed.

I think the Pandora's Box would also be opened with how the races are managed. We'd quickly see a swift end to the rider managing the race from start to finish as the teams would become more involved with telling the rider to do, or to not do things based on what the telemetry information is showing. I can think of nothing worse than riders suddenly not pushing because the team can just tell them what other riders are lapping at so they can back off. That would end a lot of the pressure a rider feels in not always knowing where someone is behind him until he sees the pit board. But if you know you can pick up or slow down pace in the middle of the lap, it ruins the potential suspense.

michaelm · Jul 25, 2016

JPSLotus said:
This was briefly discussed but MCN is regurgitating it as news since there's not much else going on.

Are there any circumstances having radios would even be warranted?

I can't see it as being reasonable in any situation. GP has managed to be unique compared to the rest of the race series in that it's essentially unchanged with how information is obtained. The pit board still remains the only way of a rider getting any information in the middle of a grand prix. I'd prefer it to stay that way permanently. If anything they need to start removing the electronics from the bikes.

Now I am an established Rossi hater I have to say this seems like crazy role reversal. MM now gives every appearance of being the sensible, statesman-like "true racer" and defender of the ethos of the sport.

Despite my long term stand against psychology by Internet it seems to me the 8th/10th title has become all-consuming for Rossi and anything that might help that end, even something stupid like radios, is grist for his mill. I reiterate, even with my current attitude to him it is still my strong belief that he has never needed a further title to prove anything.

I read David Emmett's piece on this and basically agree with him, ie I am very much against it. It was such a bad look in F1 even they have moved against team instructions by radio, and it would be worse in MotoGP imo and probably dangerous in terms of distracting riders. There was some discussion in the comments on motomutters which I did find more reasonable, that perhaps modern technology could provide a better solution for safety warnings than waved flags, the latter I guess being a century or more old as a technology now.

p4p1 · Jul 25, 2016

Pit boards also tell you your gap and when to pit...
I mean in Rossis case if he doesn't take notice of his pit board that's on him and if he doesn't pit when told to I don't see why a radio would change that.

JPSLotus · Jul 25, 2016

Do the display readouts on the GP bikes provide sector and lap times?

JPSLotus · Jul 25, 2016

michaelm said:
Now I am an established Rossi hater I have to say this seems like crazy role reversal. MM now gives every appearance of being the sensible, statesman-like "true racer" and defender of the ethos of the sport.

Despite my long term stand against psychology by Internet it seems to me the 8th/10th title has become all-consuming for Rossi and anything that might help that end, even something stupid like radios, is grist for his mill. I reiterate, even with my current attitude to him it is still my strong belief that he has never needed a further title to prove anything.

I read David Emmett's piece on this and basically agree with him, ie I am very much against it. It was such a bad look in F1 even they have moved against team instructions by radio, and it would be worse in MotoGP imo and probably dangerous in terms of distracting riders. There was some discussion in the comments on motomutters which I did find more reasonable, that perhaps modern technology could provide a better solution for safety warnings than waved flags, the latter I guess being a century or more old as a technology now.

I think I've genuinely underestimated how far Rossi is willing to go to get that 8th premier class title. While Sepang was above and beyond anything I could have imagined, openly advocating for radio communications in the wake of two blown races would fundamentally alter GP racing permanently.

Funny thing about it is that he assumes having the radio would have helped him, but what he doesn't understand is that if he has the radio, so does every other rider. So the Sachsenring debacle with the leading pack might not have unfolded with Rossi being the only one to pit, but Dovi and the rest would have come in as well. It also ignores the issue that MM was the only one who could make the slicks work as early as he did. In the best case scenario, if the leaders pit say 2 laps after MM did, Rossi is still on intermediates. MM was blowing away everyone on slicks in what was thought to be intermediate conditions. Instead of grabbing the lead when he did, he just grabs it later because as Scott Redding showed, the Intermediates were fried by the last 3 laps given how quickly Crutchlow and Dovi hauled him in.

The radio communications only works if Rossi is the only one who changes strategy. But then even at that, it assumes he somehow could ride at a pace that could match the slick tire performance of those running them which he couldn't. I'm actually starting to wonder if he is going senile with some of the things he says.

p4p1 · Jul 25, 2016

JPSLotus said:
I think I've genuinely underestimated how far Rossi is willing to go to get that 8th premier class title. While Sepang was above and beyond anything I could have imagined, openly advocating for radio communications in the wake of two blown races would fundamentally alter GP racing permanently.

Funny thing about it is that he assumes having the radio would have helped him, but what he doesn't understand is that if he has the radio, so does every other rider. So the Sachsenring debacle with the leading pack might not have unfolded with Rossi being the only one to pit, but Dovi and the rest would have come in as well. It also ignores the issue that MM was the only one who could make the slicks work as early as he did. In the best case scenario, if the leaders pit say 2 laps after MM did, Rossi is still on intermediates. MM was blowing away everyone on slicks in what was thought to be intermediate conditions. Instead of grabbing the lead when he did, he just grabs it later because as Scott Redding showed, the Intermediates were fried by the last 3 laps given how quickly Crutchlow and Dovi hauled him in.

The radio communications only works if Rossi is the only one who changes strategy. But then even at that, it assumes he somehow could ride at a pace that could match the slick tire performance of those running them which he couldn't. I'm actually starting to wonder if he is going senile with some of the things he says.

I think it's very possible that he has lost it, making mistakes which last year he wouldn't have, calls like this one with the radio. Yes he is faster at times than he was last year(tyre debate aside) but he is out of the title hunt now unless somehow form during the second half of the year changes for him which there is no reason to believe he will do better than he has previously down the home stretch.

JPSLotus · Jul 25, 2016

p4p1 said:
I think it's very possible that he has lost it, making mistakes which last year he wouldn't have, calls like this one with the radio. Yes he is faster at times than he was last year(tyre debate aside) but he is out of the title hunt now unless somehow form during the second half of the year changes for him which there is no reason to believe he will do better than he has previously down the home stretch.

The last 10 months along with the events of 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, and 2012, have IMO shown that for a top tier rider, VR is a very bad pressure rider when the stakes are at their highest. The radio ranting is just another example of his inability to handle significant pressure in GP. My feeling is that this inability to handle pressure is a byproduct of his having had significant advantages during the formative years of his premier class career, that instead of having to actually deal with adversity, the lack of it conditioned him into believing he would never face significant challenges at any point in his career...and I suppose who could fault him for this since in what, 2003/2004, it looked like the future was filled with endless titles. Mind you, he's still immensely talented, but that doesn't fully substitute for the mental aspect of the sport, and the lack of tolerance for significant adversity in competition.

danski · Jul 25, 2016

JPSLotus said:
Do the display readouts on the GP bikes provide sector and lap times?

Yes they do , you quite often hear that the rider already knows if he has pole or not because the display tells him, I didn't know about this though.
Flag Alerts Embedded in the New MotoGP Dashboards - autoevolution

danski · Jul 25, 2016

More info on the instrument cluster, lap trigger does the sector times, absolutely no need for radio.
Data Display | Magneti Marelli

JPSLotus · Jul 25, 2016

Thanks for that info. I think having the sector/lap time info, and flag information is frankly all they need on the displays. Radios are totally unnecessary.

Hollywood · Jul 25, 2016

Riders should be able to communicate which tires they want, should they need to switch bikes during the race... using a radio would be a big help during testing, by allowing riders to give immediate feedback.

danski · Jul 25, 2016

Hollywood said:
Riders should be able to communicate which tires they want, should they need to switch bikes during the race... using a radio would be a big help during testing, by allowing riders to give immediate feedback.

Tyre choice should be pre-planned, I think we've seen the last of intermediates .
The best feedback a rider gives is in the laptime.

evo9 · Jul 25, 2016

Hollywood said:
Riders should be able to communicate which tires they want, should they need to switch bikes during the race... using a radio would be a big help during testing, by allowing riders to give immediate feedback.

stick to f1 please!

Hollywood · Jul 25, 2016

Daniboy said:
Tyre choice should be pre-planned, I think we've seen the last of intermediates .
The best feedback a rider gives is in the laptime.

you never really know how the conditions are going to change, MM won the last race because his team gave him slicks.

danski · Jul 25, 2016

Hollywood said:
you never really know how the conditions are going to change, MM won the last race because his team gave him slicks.

They worked it out before the race started, Rossi wanted intermediates, also decided before the race, track had a dry line which suited slicks (and a brave decision) intermediates would only work on a hardly wet but no dry line track, very rare.

MdubSTYLIE · Jul 25, 2016

sure it might be better for the riders to not have radios but for the fans the added entertainment would be epic. Think of the fans you selfish pricks.

povol · Jul 25, 2016

I think Rossi would run alone if it helped him win another title. His desperation is getting embarrassing.I see him in 40 years rolling the streets of Tavullia in wheel chair, totally racked with dementia, screaming Vale Vale Vale.

Rossi calls for introduction of race radios

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