The unusual data hidden in the 2024 MotoGP World Championship

The 2023 MotoGP World Championship He went down in history in many ways. The Sprint Race was introduced, Pecco Bagnaia won his second consecutive crown after a fight to the last race with Jorge Martín, Ducati continued to add to his legendary data and Marc Márquez decided to abandon the Repsol Honda ship to start again with another motorcycle and a satellite computer. But there is one chapter that is extremely negative and that is that there is not one Grand Prix in the 20 held in which the 22 official MotoGP riders competed at the same time.

There is always at least one missing due to injuries sustained in the Grand Prix. It was very violent Pol Espargaró in FP2 of the Portuguese Grand Prix where he hit a tire barrier at turn 10 where he went down next to his motorcycle, a curve with no wind protection, and caused him a lot of long-term damage that put his racing career on hold.

After the first five Grands Prix, as at this point in the competition, 12 drivers suffered various types of injuries, some did not cause sick leave, but most suffered long-term injuries, including Pol itself at 8 GP. . out, Enea Bastianini, five GP out, or Marc Márquez, three GP out in the first quarter of the championship.

The injured in 2023

After the first five GGPP

PORTUGAL GP
Pol Espargaró: double jaw fracture with damage to the ear, a fracture of the cervical vertebrae, with damage to the nerve area from the neck to the scapula, and three dorsal fractures, two fractures to the ribs (fall FP2). 8 loss of GP
Enea Bastianini: fracture of the right scapula of his shoulder (Sprint). Five GPs dropped
Marc Márquez: Fracture of base of right thumb (Race). Three GPs came down
Miguel Oliveira: Injury to a pair of ligaments in the right hip (race). A low GP
Jorge Martín: broken toe and sprained ankle (Career).
GP ARGENTINA
Joan Mir: head and neck trauma (Sprint). A downhill race
GP AMERICA
Alex Márquez: muscle tear of the vastus lateralis of the quadriceps and ligament strain (Carrera)
SPAIN GP
Miguel Oliveira: Fracture of the humerus at the base of the shoulder and damage to the anterior labral ligament (stroke). 1 loss of GP
GP FRANCE
Pecco Bagnaia: small and slight fracture of the talus of his right ankle (Career)
Luca Marini: right wrist trapezius injury (Career)
Raúl Fernández: He left the GP because of the consequences of a complicated operation for tricompartmental syndrome in the right arm
Fabio Quartararo: right forearm pain mid-run after Clinic massage

This was attributed to the fact that the plague of injuries that continued throughout the championship was due to the stress generated by the new format and that they didn’t quite get the hang of the Sprint and approached it very aggressively at the start, but the truth The truth is that it is in the long race where most injuries are generated.

This probably has more to do with the 50% increase in competition laps in one weekend and also that the technical development of current MotoGP is reaching levels beyond human evolution. Today, all the riders on the grid are elite super athletes and take care of themselves as before, other generations of riders in the star category, the current bikes take them to perhaps unnecessary limits and this is something they are going to correct for the next 2027-2031 regulatory period.

Fortunately, the 2024 MotoGP World Championship is unscathed, those responsible for the championship are carefully ensuring safety and apparently so are the factories. Average top speeds aren’t as harsh as last year. For example, at Le Mans leader Binder’s average was 325.8 km/h and this year, with similar temperatures, Binder himself recorded 324.8 km/h. And in Austin last year Viñales led with 356.4 km/h and Bagnaia led this year with 350.6 km/h.

There are waterfalls, it is inherent in the activity. They took 103, Brad Binder leading with 9, one more than his partner Jack Miller. Last year there were 114 and Joan Mir was the leader with 11, but they are more serious.

So far the only casualty registered is the Yamaha tester Cal Crutchlow to whom they have requested three wild cards this 2024 and who has been suffering from an injury to his right hand for months forcing him to turn down the invitation to Mugello.