Michael Scott on boring rules
‘Yes the racing is entertaining, but is it better?’
What’s the best kind of grand prix? One in doubt until the finish line, with several potential winners? Or one where a single man-machine combination is so superior that you knew all along who would win? Obviously the former. A race that keeps everybody’s hearts in their mouths is one of the high points of human existence. Older readers might remember nodding agreement when serial winner Mick Doohan told MCN: “Racing is as boring as sh*t at the moment.”
And yet… Look at it another way. Nobody cared when it was showman-supremo Rossi doing the winning, even if any close battles were obviously contrived just to make a show of it. His unique combination of speed and charm made it disappointing when he stopped being dominant. Which brings us up to date. Last year especially, when eight out of 19 races had winning margins of less than a second, with three inside one tenth. And when tracks from Qatar to Phillip Island had battles in MotoGP that were often more reminiscent of Moto3. Premier-class racing has never been closer or more varied.
Is it because all riders have reached an equivalent level of talent? All machines a similar level of performance? Or is there something more sinister at work? There is. It’s called commercialism. Turning racing into an entertainment industry. Current close racing is entirely the result of dumb-down regulations. The claimed inspiration was to reduce costs, but the real agenda was to slow down the richer firms. Without doubt, the racing is entertaining. But better? It’s arguably made it worse, by lowering the bar. Introducing an element of standardisation – a sort of socialism, if you like – into what is meant to be a game of excellence.
MotoGP is neither an athletic contest, nor soap opera. These are side issues. It’s basic raison d’etre is as a branch of motorsport. A contest between engineers as well as riders. It’s about the combination. Hobbling the engineering introduces a bogus element – a bit like adding weights to the ankles of the better dancers in the Bolshoi ballet, so that everyone dances as badly as the worst one. The purest form of this would have every race ending in a mass dead heat. And would you still be excited then?