MotoGP | Silverstone GP: Webb (Race Director), “Every effort has been made to make the track safe but you can't beat nature”

Moot GP – The British GP was canceled due to bad weather and safety conditions.

The track, resurfaced only in January, was not able to guarantee the safety necessary for the normal competitions to take place due to poor drainage. After the decision to cancel the GP, Mike Webb (race director), Franco Unci (FIM Safety Manager) and Loris Capirossi (Dorna Safety Manager) held a press conference.

“We were forced to cancel the GP due to the track conditions.” said Mike Webb, who then added: “It was mainly the water accumulated on the circuit. We saw what the results were in FP4, the surface does not drain the water. It was the last thing we wanted to do, but safety comes first. We tried to advance the race, but the conditions were not safe. When we saw that the conditions did not improve even when the rain stopped, we made the decision. We talked about the possibility of racing tomorrow, but it wasn't possible. We have recently had experience here in adverse conditions, this year with the new surface it is the first time we have seen something like this, so in some way it is the surface's fault. All efforts have been made to make the track safe but you can't beat nature. Silverstone will need to be able to host these events, the surface must be able to handle these conditions."

Franco Uncini then spoke about a possible investigation, which however the circuit will have to deal with: “We discussed yesterday the changes to be made to the asphalt. We are deciding whether to open an investigation, which will take 6-7 weeks, to understand what the problem was. We will definitely need to resurface."

Loris Capirossi added: “We organized a meeting to hear the opinions of the pilots. Already at the first departure they told us that there was a lot of water so we postponed the departure. We did laps with the car every half hour to see if the situation improved, but in the end we decided that even with little water it was not safe to race. More or less all the pilots were of the same opinion, some suggested checking first, but we followed the majority, who said it was too dangerous. There are many rivulets on the track and this was the situation."