‘We pay our money, the riders should talk’
There’s nothing worse than racers keeping schtum on the grid
Irate the TV coverage we get for MotoGP, but the one thing that does my head in is the grid walk because the riders just ignore the microphones. We pay our subs to BT Sport etc and it’s only right that the riders do the courtesy of chatting. In fact, they should be told they have to speak. It should be Mir and Viñales one week, Rossi and Bagnaia the next etc, etc. The riders are sitting there like gods (and don’t get me wrong they are gods) but bloody hell there are millions of fans watching, wondering what’s going on, what they’re thinking – so it should be in each rider’s
‘WHEN A RIDER SPEAKS ON THE GRID IT’S FROM THE HEART’
contract that they have to talk. They do obviously chat at other times, but getting to them on the grid is the money shot. It’ll make no difference to their result – they’re not psyching themselves up – they’re not there singing to themselves about how they’re going to win.
When a rider speaks on the grid it comes from the heart. Sure they can bulls*** their way through an interview in a garage after a session, but on the grid it’s raw; it’s different.
It’s strips a rider down, because at the end of the day it doesn’t matter who you are, when you’re sitting on the grid, you’re s ******* yourself. You can feel the tension and it’s then that you’ll get the killer quote.
It never bothered me being interviewed. You’re probably on the grid for ten minutes and it’s 30s of your time. I’m not saying every TV company gets to do it, but the main players. It’s also important to get someone decent to do the grid walk, someone the riders respect, so Neil Hodgson or Simon Crafar.
Dorna should put it in each rider’s contract, so TV just rock up and say “Hi Mr Rossi, what’ve you got to say?” Easy…..