We have had a few GPs in which we have seen Marc Márquez protest, Pedro Acosta complain, Bagnaia, Martín or Quartararo insinuate or express situations with which they do not agree, but when push comes to shove, practically everything remains in the drawer of anecdotes from the GP in question. Some attract more attention than others but, in the end, they all go in the same drawer.
The bottom line of the issue is, perhaps, the format of the championship and the functions that each one has. On the one hand we have the manufacturers association, the MSMA, on the other the teams with the IRTA, logically we have MotoGP and the only ones that are not really organized are the riders.
They have been with certain protests or demands and even ideas for some time but they have a major problem: no one speaks on behalf of the rest. When a pilot complains, a pilot complains, when the MSMA pushes it is all the manufacturers pushing in the same direction.
It is true that for years Dorna at that time promoted the Safety Commission but almost from the beginning and as Valentino Rossi himself even commented at the time, the measures proposed by the pilots were often overlooked. At the end of the day, that was little more than the pilots letting off steam and although they are held every weekend, practically none of the pilots come close to them because either they can’t or they don’t consider it useful.
The fact is that there have been some drivers, such as Luca Marini or Enea Bastianini, who have proposed the election of a representative who speaks on behalf of the rest, who demands, who can put pressure and take the protests to another level. In fact, Pedro Acosta also commented something about it, although it was when he asked him about the figure of the F1 GPDA and perhaps he gave the clue to the real problem and that is that according to the Murcian, the problem is also within the grid itself and in the ego of some drivers who do not finish organizing themselves.
There was a project to channel the protests, but everything came to nothing
In fact, in 2023 a project began to take shape that had Sylvain Guintoli as a possible representative of the pilots. The initiative progressed until one of the least romantic, but most important problems for any professional association arrived: deciding who paid for its operation and how the entire structure was financed.
The project ended up stopping and although there were new meetings during 2024, nothing ended up moving forward.
Now the problem is reaching a greater dimension and it is not only about security issues, it is due to the increase in obligations during the weekends. The Sprint introduced more races and the arrival of Liberty Media more events, the cocktail itself is being too difficult to digest for some drivers at certain times.
Marc Márquez himself got off the wagon in Japan, never better said, with the aforementioned stunt and karts, but in Mandalika he went one step further and directly confronted the organization, going so far as to describe as inhumane some demands such as remaining with the overalls attending ceremonies and activities after a race in extreme conditions.
Acosta pointed out the same thing, emphasizing that there are times when the pilot needs a rest that the organizers do not seem to understand. It is the typical “The Show Must Go On” but with sanctions that can be financial, now estimated at around 5,000 euros but that can go further in the future because sporting consequences are being considered.
So, basically, the pilots are being made up for by those who need them and all for one simple reason: protesting is useless if there is no organization. The truth is that in recent times the situation has been heating up and it seems that those affected are more interested than other times, although there will always be dissenting voices.
Even so, this situation is not new for the championship and, for example, in 1979 Kenny Roberts, Barry Sheene, Virginio Ferrari and other big names in the World Championship went much further and boycotted the Spa-Francorchamps race because they considered the conditions of the circuit unacceptable. Later, Roberts and Sheene promoted the Professional Riders Association and even threatened not to compete in different Grand Prix for economic and safety reasons, although with time and dollars everything was diluted.
Meanwhile, in F1 the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers’ Association) was born in 1961 and despite going through different situations, it continues to function and is an interlocutor when talking about safety and the professional interests of the drivers. For whatever reason, of everything that Liberty has copied from Formula 1, this is not interesting to them.
Even so, as always, those who risk their lives and money are the pilots themselves. It has to be bad for us to be affected by the security decisions they make or don’t make. Of course they will know what is best for them, but they are getting the upper hand and every day it will be more difficult to turn the situation around.
