MotoGP Race Director Mike Webb comments on the chaotic start in Austin – For the future, they want to revise the regulations and make them easier to understand
The chaotic proceedings before the warm-up lap at the American Grand Prix will lead to further discussions and possibly to adjustments to the regulations. For safety reasons, race control canceled the entire procedure.
This meant that everything started again. The drivers were able to switch to their motorcycles with dry setups and on slicks. With the quick restart, the Grand Prix in Austin finally started as scheduled after a delay of about ten minutes.
The chaos was triggered by Marc Marquez, who ran towards the pit lane to change motorbikes just before the start of the warm-up lap. Nine drivers followed him and also sprinted off.
Marquez and his Ducati crew had misinterpreted the regulations in two aspects. On the one hand, they had assumed that if more than ten drivers followed him, the starting procedure would be aborted.
On the other hand, if fewer drivers followed him, they assumed that Marquez would start last on the grid after the bike change and the warm-up lap. Both assumptions are wrong.
If race control had not stopped the race for safety reasons, then all drivers who ran into the pit lane would have had to take up the race from their original starting position after the warm-up lap. In the race, everyone would then have received a drive-through penalty through the pit lane.
At the Circuit of The Americas, the time lost for a drive-through penalty was around half a minute. This is roughly the equivalent of a flag-to-flag motorcycle change. This rule was introduced as a result of the 2018 Argentine Grand Prix.
While Jack Miller was on pole position with the right tires at the time, all the other drivers decided to change their motorcycles shortly before the start. Several rows behind Miller were eventually left empty until all the other drivers were lined up on the grid.
Background: Rule change after Argentina 2018
MotoGP Race Director Mike Webb explains to Motorsport.com Spain why the rules were changed as a result of Argentina 2018.
“It was changed because neither the organization nor the infrastructure is prepared for a large number of drivers to change bikes shortly before the race and then line up at the back of the field,” said Webb.
“For this reason, it was decided that each driver would start from their original position and the penalty would be applied afterwards.” Austin has shown the weakness of this rule, however, because the chaotic scenes raised safety concerns.
Because there were a lot of people walking around in the pit lane, including grid girls. Motorcycles were being pushed all over the place, some drivers were already rolling down the pit lane with the slick bike after the change and avoiding people.
That’s why race control was completely suspended. “The red flag was shown for safety reasons,” said race director Webb. “When Marc ran to his pit, almost half of the starting field followed him.“
”Under these conditions, with so many people and motorcycles moving around on the grid and in the pit lane, a race start was simply not safe. We couldn’t even close the pit wall doors because there were too many people there.”
Why “Start delayed” in Austin was not an option
Three drivers had opted for slicks, which were ultimately the right tires, on the original starting grid. These were Aprilia driver Ai Ogura and the KTM duo Brad Binder and Enea Bastianini.
Due to the complete stop, they were robbed of their advantage. Could race control have shown the “Start delayed” sign instead of the red flag? Because that could have resulted in a slightly different outcome.
Webb says: “If we had chosen ‘Start delayed’, we would have had to move the drivers who had left the pit lane to the back of the starting field according to the regulations – which would have led us back to Argentina 2018, where this approach proved to be unworkable.”
Therefore, the safest and easiest method was to restart the entire starting procedure. “We decided to show the red flag and restart the procedure because we considered this to be the safest and clearest option,” the race director is convinced.
Nevertheless, the team wants to draw lessons from Austin 2025 for the future: “What happened in Austin is unprecedented, but it will cause us to revise parts of the regulations – mainly with the aim of simplifying the rules so that they are clearly understood by everyone involved.”
