Or they have to disqualify….

"'OR THEY MUST BE DISQUALIFIED! "

At Donington Park the halfway point of the MotoGP world championship told us
the farce of a race assigned "through the press": we had seen it, but
this was missing.
Absolute dominator on the track, Valentino, dominator in the hearts of the cold English
who, just by seeing him, become companions who are only missing a glass of
Sangiovese in hand and you wouldn't distinguish them, dominator in Sunday listening,
him and his colleagues, but in a clear minority in the approval of Italian journalists.

Clear minority is a good-natured euphemism: I would say in a ratio of 1/100.

TENSIONS:
The paddock already on Friday has a strange aura if nothing else
for the scenery that surrounds it, testimony to an island where changes
they have a hard life, so there is only room in the 60s style garages
for the premier class teams and when the 250 and 125 enter the pit lane for
preparing to hit the track is done by going through the hospitality areas: the whole thing
It's very "vintage". The paddock is like a small town, the same
to himself wherever he goes and yet always different. Apparently the same faces
and the same ways of communicating, made up of a strange "English-Spanish-Italian" language,
the usual "hello" or "Hi" of practice, exchanged by people who
meets continuously and that will already be on Tuesday
most of them on a circuit in Brno, the testing venue for the major teams. TO
Donington, however, there is something different, something that follows
the wake of Gibo Badioli's scooter, something in dad's constant presence
Biaggi in the press room, something in the Repsol and Camel hospitality,
an intense coming and going. The riders seem calm, but despite the turnout here
at the paddock is not remotely comparable to that of Mugello, in any case
you can't see them around, or rather, you can't see them at all! Some in three days not
they never put their heads out, except after sunset; the two top drivers have
spent time in some Honda vans as well as in motorhomes.

THE TESTS:
On Friday the weather was that changeable only in Great Britain
you can find, at least in Europe: while you are calling home talking about
a cloudy day, the sun starts to shine on your head and the blue
suddenly it turns on and while you're saying you were wrong, in a couple of
minutes everything goes back to the way it was before…..
From the almost forty degrees of Italy we reach the 22 of the circuit and the asphalt
not rubberized and rather slippery on its own, it doesn't allow great things; Valentine
However, try the open "three-way" exhausts, then pass again
closed and takes the provisional pole ahead of a profoundly knowledgeable Bailyss
of the most profitable trajectories in this route. Nothing striking:
Gibernau and Checa complete the front line, Biaggi takes care of the setup and
new chassis and remains a little further back. On Saturday things change
first of all for the air temperature which reaches 26-27 degrees (one
manna in these parts judging by English TV) then because Valentino
receives the first little warning, from fate or from someone it is not
given that we know, the fact is that the front tire is the best
he immediately loses pressure and the pole attempt practically doesn't even start. Max
then on the throne, but Vale fourth and quiet; in the middle a splendid Marco
Melandri demonstrating the great talent of the friendly man from Ravenna who
with a bit of luck he will show us great things very soon.

THE PRESS ROOM:
Entering with the red smoke yellow shirt with the 46 on the back I notice
don't arouse much sympathy, actually, in addition to looking at me like an alien, some people like me
they look like "an alien who's on his balls":
Journalists are rightly never usually lined up, at least as clothing,
some only as clothing, others don't need clothing to make it clear
who they are with.
There is a good portion of people engaged in the work (photographers and
team press offices) and are immediately noticeable because they do not stand out
their eyes from their laptop and are in a mad rush, while others,
the minority but of undoubted nationality, is sitting there a
enjoy air conditioning, cigarettes, monitors with tests and times and drinks
cold or hot available to guests. The strange thing is that at the
outside of the "Roman dialect", understood not only as a language, I hear people speak
little else, especially from those of the Italian press, printed paper and
not only.
I don't see them being too busy with what they have to do, I don't see an attempt to
research through some physical movement in the pits or along the circuit: no,
they stay there and when he passes, they ask the press officer about this pilot
or to this manager an appointment to talk and if they get up it's because
they are going there or to the bathroom.
The rest is to wait for the press releases issued by the employees of each team (press releases
that each of them brings to the table!) and a bar chat with the
characters that pop up from time to time, between "to do"
and the other.
From this they extract those four daily lines of summary then seasoned
from those things that all of them more or less write in their pieces and which
they enjoy writing, just as others enjoy omitting them.

Listen to these who should be the ones who tell you how it really goes
a race weekend is very instructive, especially from the technical and technical side
the idea of ​​a great experience made available to the public, not
of their sympathies... yes... right....
It goes from feeling that Valentino just wants more money and wouldn't win
nothing except with Honda, to the fact that he is a braggart or that another
“he's better”, to the fact that he always complains when things don't work
are fine, for example referring to Saturday.
No mention of the timing extract which indicates that Valentino's best time
he did it on lap three, while everyone else on the track did
done 26th out of 30, 29th out of 30, 25th out of 28th; when I do it
notice they tell me that he has to stop complaining, with the air of a policeman
urban service in a mid-August Rome with 42 degrees in the shade.
As soon as Vale enters for the press conference, however, everything sparkles
of teeth in the more ass-kissing smiles (sorry for the vulgarity) than
you can imagine; as soon as the smile comes out it turns into a grin and chatter
certainly not in his favor.
I won't give you the names or you would be horrified and the already lack of trust in the information
would disappear completely. In any case me and my shirt on the first day
We weren't pleasant: evidently a Rossi supporter in the room
print is of a shocking rarity.

THE RACE AND THE MEDIA:
Let's combine the two categories, competition and information, why not
as in this case they were tied together. With the environment that
I described it to you before, it's not difficult to imagine how it happened
actually things, even more so considering that two out of four of the
Our TV musketeers are Max's long-time friends.
Someone between the press room and TV is responsible for the mess that ended
with Valentino's penalty, as well as when his partner at school
class that had nothing to do with it but you were worried about, it went from
master at being a spy.
Furthermore, the sentence inflicted could have been different and Biaggi wouldn't have been taken out of me
in solidarity (in front of notebooks and cameras) for his "misadventure"
of 1998, because the difference is such that the two cases are not similar
not even close (but people have short memories).

In any case, someone leaves proudly and goes to tell Pons that he overtook Valentino
there was a yellow flag flying over Loris; I'm going to tell him why
you can only see it on TV because no one noticed it on the circuit,
not even Pons. Someone else also tells him that “we have the images”
and we are still in the third-fourth lap; Pons communicates this to Gresini and asks him
if he will make an official complaint, but the Telefonica Team has no intention
to do it. The laps pass, but Dorna is increasingly put under pressure
from the media and we obviously give a big hand as Italians, always ready
to “masochistic nationalism”. At the end of the race Team Pramac e
Ducati will ask for clarifications and a splendid and well-deserved victory (la
drifting looking at the audience is worth the ticket price alone) will come
magically erased.
And then who would be the pet of Italian journalists?
Please don't let me hear any more nonsense like this!

THE RULES MUST BE RESPECTED.
This is for sure and appearances are all for Valentino's guilt.

Of course I remembered the "TV test" at Biscardi's trial, not
in the MotoGP, but evidently the Italian journalists present, without prejudice
the due exceptions of characters I admire, have drawn strong references
professionals from that broadcast, while the good ones stay at home to comment
the reruns of other races, perhaps because they are truly in the profession and
this is scary.

Let's now analyze the video, not to justify, but to understand.

There are 3 flags that appear: one at the beginning of the return hairpin
before the final straight, one at the end of the hairpin, one that is
the one best seen on TV.
The first two: one is stationary and the other flutters (perhaps due to the wind).

At that point the third flag arrives, near the braking point
fear (Ukawa but also Lucchinelli know something about it): that commissioner is
positioned perfectly against the sun on a very fast stretch where the pilot
he looks for the reference he has for braking and doesn't take his eyes off it
not even for a second (if whoever positioned the commissioners had run some
once in his life or whoever ran would say something about it every now and then....).
In front there should be the fourth flag waved quickly nearby
of the pilot who fell and was lying in a dangerous position in the escape route: it is
the only flag the pilot can actually see, but it's not there.

There is no one to agitate her, since Ukawa is
already been accompanied within the first protections and the bike was
removed (you see the commissioners at the bottom of the television screen), in fact at the end
the green flag is displayed at the curve.
If there is a dangerous situation and the pilot does not respect it, the
sanction must be automatic and fair, but if it had been such a case
sensational wouldn't it have been obvious?
And would you have waited until the end of the race to give a stop and go or a blackout?

If the dangerous situation is no longer present and the pilot anyway
does not respect the flag it is normal to adapt the punishment to the possible
damage that could have been caused, i.e. a warning seen
that it would have been null?
If the "Biscardian TV proof" is valid to testify to an unseen damage
by the referee, it is also valid to demonstrate the judicial error (sent off
a player in place of another, the latter is not disqualified).

One flag flying in one damn place and one missing entirely, I am
overwhelming evidence of guilt?
And finally…

Sure that all those who turned into the hairpin before the finish line
you find them in the same positions at the next bend, despite the flags
yellow?

I know the answer, but despite writing and loving Valentino, if
should it happen I will never be one of those who will film in the theater
press saying “oh that or you have to be disqualified!”.

I leave that infamous profession to others, because it is a profession
which suits them perfectly.

MAK
from Donington Park

(Rossifumi.it)