Confidential Box: Do not harm yourself

THE REFLECTION: Don’t hurt yourself.

Aleix Espargaró suffered two falls today, one in each session held. In the second…”the bike broke in two, even if it was slow”, commented Aleix, dismissing it, explaining that the crashes were part of the process of finding the limits of his Aprilia in Motorland. He took the opportunity, on a circuit where he has always been fast, to reinforce his determination to win again. I won’t be the one to tell Aleix how to manage the weekend, but he knows, as we all do, with five GPs in six weeks -Aragon, Japan, Thailand, Australia and Malaysia- the risks must be managed carefully with more attention than usual. Especially in his case, as a contender for the title with Fabio Quartararo and Pecco Bagnaia. It’s true that third in the provisional championship, 33 points behind Quartararo, Aleix has the most at stake of the three, but it’s also true that 150 points and a broken little finger are still at stake. could spoil the entire sequence of the next five races.

THE ABSENT: Missing Valentino.

The last time Valentino Rossi was seen in a GP was at Mugello in May. It is this absence that “disgusts” the promoter of the championship, because of the strategy carried out to improve the visibility, compliance and popularity of MotoGP, having more presence of Valentino will be… how to say it, the best possible marketing campaign? Because Rossi is more than a former driver. Take for example what happened on Sunday at the Portuguese GP, when Valentino took ten minutes to get from the back of the grid to the front row because all the visitors on the grid asked him to take pictures with him ! And it is precisely profiles like this, the character of whom everyone wants to see -whether they love racing or not-, one of the situations that today differentiates MotoGP from F1. But Rossi, despite being given all the facilities to set up a structure in MotoGP, was hardly seen in the GGPP. It is true that many follow the GT Cup of the World Challenge Tour races or practices in which he runs, but make no mistake, those who hope to see Valentino as the manager of the standard VR46 do not know Rossi.

THE FACT: Quantity does not guarantee quality.

Augusto Fernández’s move to MotoGP within the new Gas Gas team was made official this afternoon. With the arrival of Majorcan in MotoGP -I don’t know what they eat on the island that they don’t stop “making” top riders- in 2023 there will be ten Spanish riders in a grid of 22: the Márquez brothers, the Espargaró brothers, Joan Mir , Alex Rins, Jorge Martín, Maverick Viñales and the Fernández, Raúl and Augusto. Many, yes, but as we have seen this season, quantity does not guarantee results: of the fourteen GPs held so far, of the nine current riders of the Spanish MotoGP, only one GP has been won, conquered by Aleix Espargaró when the GP of Argentina was celebrated in April, and since then nothing despite the fact that we have uploaded them to all brands except Yamaha. In other words, and no offense, quantity does not guarantee quality.