When the first attempt at starting Sunday’s MotoGP Americas GP was flagged, and subsequently restarted with everyone permitted to switch to their 'dry' bicycles. In Aprilia’s pit area at the Trackhouse, intense fury erupted. The team principal, Davide Brivio, was livid over the situation involving his driver. Ai Ogura — one of the three who had already mounted slick tires on the starting grid — would not receive the benefit for taking that risk.
You can grasp exactly where Brivio was coming from after he voiced his anger during a live TV broadcast. Opting for tire strategy in unpredictable weather is often the last resort for teams typically out of contention for victory; they see it as their sole shot at turning the improbable into reality. Thus, when faced with long stretches of either completely dry or entirely wet races over months—or perhaps years—a squad such as Trackhouse seizes hope on those rare days featuring variable weather conditions.
If this group subsequently makes an evidently correct decision—as Brivio’s unit did on Sunday—championships begin to seem within reach, and excitement builds up. The team has seized its opportunity and played their cards just right... now the competition is truly underway!
When race officials intervene during a red flag and announce that all top competitors will get to replicate your maneuver without any penalties, it’s understandable why tempers flare.
We’ve seen the unfairness of such red flag ‘resets’ exposed many times before in motorsport, of course. So often, in fact, that it shouldn’t be necessary to write this piece. These situations should have been banished long ago, but they hang around, smouldering away like a rulemaker’s lucky pair of socks.
The ‘free tyre change’ rule at red flag time has been a topic for years in Formula 1 – and it doesn’t only crop up in weather-related scenarios. Rewind to the accident that stopped a dry Monaco GP in 2011, when Sebastian Vettel got to change his worn tyres for free, thus wiping all previous strategic decisions and ruining a potentially thrilling finish.
In MotoGP and Formula 1, teams can controversially change tyres 'for free' during a red flag
Photo courtesy of: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
These resets not only deprive 'minnows' of opportunities but also tend to annoy the bigger players. George Russell expressed his disadvantage due to this during the Mugello race in 2020. In Saudi Arabia, 2021, Lando Norris described it as "stupid" and labeled it "the worst rule ever created."
Incidents during last year’s Monako and Brazilian Grands Prix led to demands for the abolishment of the regulation. However, no action has been taken yet. This rule seems untouchable, as if it were a sacred cow.
Outbursts about this issue are fortunately rarer in MotoGP. This is partly due to fewer race interruptions and simpler strategic planning, especially when conditions are dry. Unlike some other racing series, safety car deployments and mandatory tire changes do not occur.
Why, when the flaws in this approach have been clearly highlighted so many times, is there this insistence on wiping the strategic slate clean and effectively cancelling the story of the race thus far?
Still, MotoGP is complicit in validating this idea that this rule has a place in top-level motorsport – and it has had its flashpoints before Sunday. On both its visits to Austria in the emergency 2020 schedule, for example, riders were unduly affected by their rivals being allowed to change tyres at stoppages.
These events were actually uneventful: the Austrian Grand Prix was halted due to the terrifying crash involving Franco Morbidelli While the following Styrian Grand Prix was halted due to a dramatic brake failure experienced by Maverick ViƱales, similar situations occurred in both races. In these instances, those riders fortunate enough to have additional tires remaining within their allocated set gained an advantage—despite no one anticipating a stoppage during a dry MotoGP event. This outcome proved absurd, unwarranted, and unjust.
A matter of principle
As far as I can recall, there was a period when the rule stating 'do not work on your vehicle during a red flag - it's not a pit stop' was quite basic in motor racing. IndyCar deserves praise for maintaining this stance in their rules. However, the top tiers of both motorcycle and car racing continuously focus on permitting a tire/equipment change every time a red flag is shown.
Why, despite numerous clear demonstrations of the issues with this method, do people insist on starting afresh strategically and essentially disregarding the progress made up to now? This logic holds just as little weight whether you're talking about motorcycles or cars. Given the multitude of intricate challenges demanding our attention globally, addressing this issue should not be among our top priorities. A red flag means 'do not touch the vehicle.' The reasoning behind this is as straightforward as refraining from interfering at a crime scene before law enforcement arrives. Why must we continually stress this point?
The red flag tire regulation stays in place, even though numerous case studies indicate it should be modified.
Photo credit: David Buono - Icon Sportswire -Getty Images
Certainly, factors like the weather could shift during a red-flag period. Similarly, an aggressive dog might attack the lead driver as they wait in the pit lane for the race to resume. However, such unpredictable events cannot be regulated. While unfair incidents do occur, adhering strictly to rules preventing drivers from interfering with their vehicles ensures that outcomes remain within the realm of chance. This is what everyone expects from motor sport regulators. Nobody demands that you create scenarios which were initially progressing naturally without intervention.
A caveat or two
Although making a 'no touching the bikes' rule fundamental for MotoGP red-flag scenarios should be implemented promptly, this shouldn't prevent us from applying some basic logic when needed.
If heavy rain occurs or a racetrack becomes increasingly wet after the tire selection commitment—when the three-minute warning sign is shown for MotoGP—it wouldn’t make sense to require riders to start with slick tires due to obvious safety concerns.
However, what you can do is recognize that permitting riders to switch tires in this situation represents a specific exception to that core rule. You could address those who happened to be on the correct tires—whether due to fortune or good decision-making—by imposing a pit lane penalty on those who were not. For MotoGP, such a penalty would amount to roughly the same lost time as changing tires during the race. This approach serves as quite an equitable solution.
By contrast, a track going from wet to dry, as COTA did on Sunday, is hardly a safety matter. If you got stuck with wets at the wrong time, you can hobble a lap back to the pits and correct your mistake in normal fashion. There is no case here for interference for officialdom. The guiding principle can remain in place.
There is an argument out there that tyre changes should always be allowed, even in a dry race, because of the possibility that somebody might have run over accident debris. That’s not only an over-the-top bit of Health & Safety; it’s the kind of official over-engineering we’ve explored already. It targets a kind of fairness that ignores racing reality and only exists on paper.
It is likely Bagnaia would not have won the Americas GP had he not been able to switch tyres during the red flag
Photo by: Ducati Corse
As long as you have a warm-up or sighting lap before the restart, riders will have an opportunity to feel whether anything has gone wrong before they go racing. And if it has? Then they’re free to pit and rejoin the race when it has been addressed! Yes, absolutely, this is an unlucky scenario for a rider who may have innocently picked up a piece of someone else’s crash. But again, at least that’s bad luck that’s down to fate. It’s preferable – I think – to officialdom shifting the bad luck onto those who were winning the strategy fight, in a misguided, never-gonna-work attempt to create fairness.
In any case, the debris argument is clearly rooted in car racing, where contact is common and bodywork tends to scatter more liberally, more often. Debris is only rarely an issue in motorcycle racing.
Going back to core guidelines and exceptions: no, you cannot dismiss instances where mechanical or tire interventions during halts might be sensible. However, appropriate regulations could address such situations effectively. For instance, IndyCar permits 'approval' for work on your vehicle during red flag periods; however, this will result in starting at the rear of the pack upon resumption of the race (as per Rule 7.1.4.2d).
Referring to the constitution…
The present FIM Grand Prix World Championship Rules span 381 pages. The ambiguity surrounding the grid process at COTA highlighted certain unclear sections within. Although tackling these issues isn’t problematic, establishing clear foundational guidelines could assist everyone in navigating novel scenarios more effectively.
To elaborate on the principle at hand: there is an inherent, instinctive sense of right and wrong in emergency scenarios that everyone involved in motor sports can grasp. This includes individuals who benefited from the chaos at Circuit of The Americas – among them, the winner. Francesco Bagnaia and runner-up Alex Marquez — recognized that the circumstances were unjust for riders such as Ogura and team managers like Brivio. It’s clear that no pause — especially one you initiated yourself! — ought to serve as a chance to correct errors committed prior.
If that principle is evident to everyone involved, it might be worthwhile to add a 382nd page and document it as a sort of constitutional directive. It seems that Formula 1’s rulemakers require considerable persuasion to make such a move—could MotoGP demonstrate itself to be somewhat more adaptable?
Could the regulations regarding a red flag ever be altered in MotoGP?
Photo courtesy of: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
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