Motorsport needs two key players like the Márquez brothers

Paolo Simoncelli comments on the last two world championship rounds, particularly the one in Catalunya, which made everyone tremble...

"We leave Barcelona with the clear feeling that we narrowly avoided tragedy." As usual, Paolo Simoncelli doesn’t mince words—he says exactly what he thinks. And it clearly reflects everyone’s mood: the two crashes in Barcelona, already very serious, could have had an even worse, literally fatal outcome, as we have unfortunately seen many times in the long history of the MotoGP World Championship. For Alex Marquez and Johann Zarco, the recovery will inevitably be long, but at least they are both alive! Before the Mugello GP, scheduled for next week, here’s what the owner of SIC58 Squadra Corse in Moto3 had to say.

"These two trips [Le Mans and Barcelona] have severely tested the riders’ spirits and made us believe again in ‘divine providence.’ We took huge risks, and it ended ‘well.’" In his usual post-GP commentary, Paolo Simoncelli, rather than focusing on his Moto3 riders, directs his thoughts above all to those who, as part of this beautiful and dangerous passion for two wheels, risked their lives last Sunday. "Marquez Junior’s crash, triggered by a problem for Acosta, set off a hair-raising pile-up—one of those sequences you rewatch and struggle to believe are real. And then the second start, even worse, with Zarco at the center of an absurd dynamic—flipped over, his leg wedged between the wheel and the swingarm… stuff that in the end almost seems ‘less serious’ than expected, and that alone says it all. At certain moments motorcycling reminds us how thin the line is between spectacle and drama." There was also intervention from Race Direction, which later changed the final result. "In the end, a standings upended by penalties related to tire pressure. Almost a joke," is Simoncelli’s comment.

Naturally, there’s no shortage of notes for his riders: Leo Rammerstorfer scored his first world championship points, while Casey O’Gorman, with the whole family in tow, struggled more—perhaps weighed down by excessive expectations and pressure... However, Simoncelli keeps his faith in his Moto3 boys, before returning to the MotoGP chapter. "Barely time to unpack and it’s already Mugello time. The first Italian round of the season will be without the Marquez brothers," the SIC58 Squadra Corse boss recalled. Alex will clearly be out; Marc is still very doubtful and will most likely be absent as well, even though the goal remains a return at the Tuscan circuit. But the body always has the final say... "We wish both of them the best of luck, hoping to see them back in the saddle soon! Because the world of motorsport still needs two important pieces like them, and because there are always too few who can make us all ‘jump to our feet on the couch,’" Paolo Simoncelli concluded.