MotoGP considers introducing dashboard rider communication

The German Grand Prix last month was shaped by riders either using or ignoring information displayed by their teams on pitboards, telling them to pit to change bikes in drying conditions.

That prompted suggestions about the introduction of pit-to-rider radios, which would have prevented such confusion as Marc Marquez on slicks rapidly caught the leaders on wets.

While radios are not currently on the agenda, MotoGP promoter Dorna has been working on a project called 'virtual boarding' for the last year, with testing set to start next month at Aragon.

The system would let teams send around 20 pre-defined electronic messages to appear on a dashboard as an extension of pitboard information on laptimes and gaps to rivals, using existing technology that displays alerts from race control.

"We are already sending some information to the dashboard of the riders, sporting information from race direction, like flags and things like that," Dorna's events managing director Javier Alonso told motogp.com.

"We are evolving software that will allow teams to send 20-25 messages to riders and we are defining those messages.

"The next step is to finalise this list of messages and do some tests.

"We plan to do a test probably at Aragon, to send some messages to the riders and see how it works.

"The idea is that next year if everything goes well, teams will be able to send more or less the same messages they have right now on the boards in pitlane, to the dashboard of the riders."

The information could then also be built into MotoGP broadcasts.

"Teams have a computer that allows them to have communication with race direction," Alonso added.

"The idea is to use that same platform for the teams to send that information for the riders - it goes to the brain of the system within Dorna - and the idea is to put it in the broadcast that we are doing live."