Alpinestars released a statement with regards to the incident from Catalan MotoGP, involving the race suit of Fabio Quartararo.
Following the trouble with the race suit of Yamaha’s Quartararo during the Catalan MotoGP race, Alpinestars has released a statement after initial findings. Multiple theories were put forward after the incident, but some of it have been quashed by them.
Alpinestars noted that the airbag system did not deploy during the race to make it uncomfortable for Quartararo. It added that the suit, as well as, the zippers and fasteners were all found in compliant with the safety rules set by the FIM.
Further investigation will be carried at the Alpinestars HQ. “Following Sunday’s MotoGP race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the Alpinestars’ Racing Development team commenced an investigation into the integrity of Fabio Quartararo’s racing suit,” started the statement.
“Upon initial analysis post-race in the Alpinestars Racing Development truck located in the MotoGP paddock, the team found the suit to be in normal working order with all zippers and fasteners fully functioning. Furthermore, all the suit’s componentry, including the Tech-Air Airbag System, was intact and fully functioning
“This is only a first assessment, to be further investigated once the suit is in the Alpinestars laboratory at Alpinestars headquarters, conducting all testing and analysis to understand more about the cause of what happened The Tech-Air Airbag System did not deploy during the race, it functioned as expected, as there was not a crash situation.”
Quartararo, meanwhile, was handed a three-second penalty after the MotoGP race, which dropped him to sixth in the order. Initially, he wasn’t aligning with the views of the stewards and others, but having reviewed the footage, he agreed of safety disregard.
In fact, Quartararo, admitted that they should have shown him the black flag. “First of all, yeah I think looking back at what happened now the story is finished I can be happy because it’s difficult to admit, but for me it was black flag,” he said to media including MotoGP, Crash, The Race, Motorsport Network and more.
“I mean, it’s true that I put in danger myself and also with what happened last week I think it was the correct thing. But I was lucky. The only penalty I don’t agree with was the shortcut because I don’t feel it was fair.
“I lost seven tenths, but if I lost one second the penalty was gone, and how do I know on the bike I lose seven tenths of one second? So, that was a little bit stupid. But I admit the second penalty. I was angry, of course, but better this than zero points,” summed up Quartararo, who then added about the stewards handing penalties.
Before his suit penalty, Quartararo also had one for shortcut, which dropped him behind Ducati’s Jack Miller, from third to fourth. The Frenchman admitted that stewards are getting far stricter, but they need to understand where a rider gains and where they don’t.
“For the safety, the more there is the better it is,” said Quartararo. “But we are getting into some things that I really don’t like, like Miguel and Mir in Mugello last lap. They exceeded track limits, but it’s not track limits out of the kerb, it was the end of the kerb like Joe Roberts also in Mugello.
“It’s not giving any gains. The shortcut, I mean I don’t go through because I wanted to go straight. I lost the front, I crashed and I go straight. If it was gravel there I would go in the gravel. You get a three-second penalty to shortcut, but the shortcut was slower than normal, so it’s not a shortcut.
“So, for me the rules is getting more and more strict, we can’t always be precisely on the line. We can make mistakes and I think it’s taking out the fun side of the show and we are not robots, so I think a little bit of mistakes is allowed by the riders and more when you need to make 24 laps on the limit,” summed up Quartararo.
Here’s how the Catalan MotoGP panned out
