Safety concerns: Race control proposes holeshot ban at the start

– The race direction has proposed to the MotoGP teams the possibility of banning the use of ride-height systems at the race starts in Le Mans, Silverstone, and Phillip Island. This was in response to safety concerns from the riders.

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This initiative arose from discussions between the riders and race direction at the safety commission meeting on Friday evening in the Le Mans paddock.

At this meeting, several riders pointed out the safety risk posed by the use of front and rear ride-height systems at the start on certain types of tracks.

The layouts of Le Mans, Silverstone, and Phillip Island were under debate. At all three tracks, the riders reach the first corner very quickly. Additionally, the first corner is approached at an angle.

Furthermore, the braking point is not hard enough to guarantee the deactivation of the front holeshot system. All of this can lead to very tricky situations, which are discussed every year on these three tracks.

The riders’ concerns prompted the race direction to offer the teams the option to vote on banning the use of these systems at the start of both races (Sprint and Grand Prix) at these three tracks.

In a letter to the teams it said: “It has been determined that the use of these systems on these specific tracks poses a significant safety risk to the riders.”

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“This particularly concerns the trajectory of the riders towards corner 1 at the starts.” The teams were asked to indicate whether they support this special measure.

In a later communication, the race direction informed the teams that after evaluating the feedback received, there would be no changes for this weekend in France.

If the change had been approved, the schedule for Saturday would have had to be adjusted to include an additional session so that the riders could practice starts without the ride-height systems.

Motorsport-Total.com assumes that the possibility of a ban at the races in Silverstone (August) and Australia (October) remains on the table and will be discussed soon.

If this extraordinary measure is approved, it would be a first step towards the kind of starts that will become the norm from next year when the new technical regulations come into effect, explicitly banning these ride-height systems.

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