Why there's no excuse for Silverstone MotoGP race cancellation
The disastrous race cancellation at Silverstone must be used as an example to avoid MotoGP facing similar situations in the future, says ORIOL PUIGDEMONT
The majority of us will agree that the postponement of the Qatar Grand Prix in 2009 due to rainy conditions in the desert was reasonable considering the unusual circumstances that Sunday at Losail.
But the fact that Silverstone owners put the rain top of the big list of problems that forced the cancellation of the British GP seems to be a bad joke.
Tito Rabat got the worst of it. He needs to remain in Coventry University Hospital a few more days after being brutally run over by Franco Morbidelli's Honda on Saturday at midday; though in truth, everyone in the championship lost out.
First, it is clear that the resurfacing works done at the beginning of the year weren't sufficient.
This is something Formula 1 drivers complained about a month ago; Lewis Hamilton even publicly supported his MotoGP counterparts, specifically because of the numerous bumps, which the resurfacing did little to fix.
"If the people who resurfaced the track got some money afterwards, they have to think about it," said Marc Marquez after the first free practice. The world champion is not a rider who normally complains.
A leading Moto2 rider's engineer added: "After checking the data of the first session, I thought that the suspension device had been damaged. The effect of the bumps was tremendous.
"In fact, I even compared the data with the team-mate's bike to check if everything was right."
The company in charge of resurfacing the track was Aggregate Industries, which at this moment hasn't said anything about the work in the light of recent events.
Despite the track refunding fans, the facts speak for themselves. And the clearest evidence is that someone should have anticipated that in England, having rain forecast is an obvious possibility - at any track, but obviously at Silverstone, where there have been wet races held since the circuit opened.
It's worth heeding the thoughts of the championship's most experienced and intuitive riders, such as Andrea Dovizioso.
"The problem is that there isn't a championship commission in charge of checking how the works are done," he suggested.
"The promoter, in that case the circuit, hired a company and each one of them has its own standard.
"But it is obvious that, if none of those two parts could predict the rain effects, someone else should have done it."
One of the more rational statements from such a crazy weekend.
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