MotoGP’s plan to introduce Components 1 fashion pit-to-bike radio in 2025 faces opposition from outgoing world champion Pecco Bagnaia.
The system was tried once more in Tuesday’s post-season Barcelona take a look at, the place Bagnaia insisted the present iteration remains to be too harmful to make use of.
MotoGP has been experimenting with the know-how since 2020, ostensibly to enhance security by permitting race management to speak immediately with riders within the case of an incident on observe reasonably than to permit groups to speak to their racers.
Proper now, that operate is already achieved by textual content messages that may be despatched to the bike’s sprint by each race management and the groups, both for questions of safety resembling crimson flags or to speak info such because the gaps to rivals.
It’s a considerably restricted system, particularly in regard to what the groups can do, with messages coming from a pre-approved listing that limits what will be communicated.
It’s extensively believed that MotoGP bosses additionally see an leisure worth in with the ability to talk with riders throughout a race, replicating the radio messages that F1 has efficiently included into its TV broadcasts.
And regardless of many within the paddock having reservations, MotoGP has been pushing on with assessments of the know-how for the previous few seasons, experimenting with totally different types of transmitter, speaker and microphone inside helmets.
As that testing elevated throughout 2024, it’s believed the plan was to implement some form of preliminary system for subsequent season.
Nonetheless, so far as manufacturing facility Ducati rider Bagnaia is worried, that plan must be delayed.
One of many main considerations up to now has been round racers being disturbed by radio messages, ought to they arrive whereas they’re totally dedicated to a nook or at most lean angle, a difficulty exacerbated by the way in which by which the pack spreads out across the observe throughout a race which means there shall be no supreme time to ship a full-field message assured nobody shall be at lean or mid-corner.
“It’s nonetheless not prepared,” Bagnaia insisted.
“It didn’t work after I examined it. It wasn’t working so I didn’t hear something.
“Additionally it was disturbing me a bit.
“The cable to attach it is usually big and it may very well be harmful.
“So, nonetheless not prepared and I’ll take a look at once more when it’s prepared.”
With solely 5 days of full-field pre-season testing between now and the opening race of 2025 in Thailand subsequent March, Dorna has a race towards time to discover a resolution to at the very least a few of these considerations if it needs the radio know-how to be a part of subsequent yr’s championship.
