Marco Bezzecchi
The terrible crashes at the Catalan Grand Prix have reignited talk about safety in MotoGP, and it has shown why multiple people have complained about the idea of street circuits.
Fabio Di Giannantonio’s victory in Barcelona was overshadowed by two horrendous accidents for Alex Marquez and Johann Zarco. The former crashed on lap 12 after colliding with Pedro Acosta down the back straight.
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The KTM rider’s engine cut out and Marquez had no time to react, slamming into him and the wall with a sickening impact. The race was immediately red-flagged as the Gresini rider was taken to hospital to undergo checks.
Marquez will have surgery on Sunday after suffering a C7 fracture and a right clavicle fracture. The severity of the accident shocked fans and experts, and it highlighted the dangers on current and future MotoGP circuits.
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Neil Hodgson says Alex Marquez’s crash proves why people don’t want road circuits in MotoGP
The Catalunya circuit layout saw Marquez have a heavy impact with the wall down the back straight, highlighting that, as Neil Hodgson put it, ‘strange things can happen’ on parts of a track that one would not expect to have an accident.
It also shows why people are so sceptical about street circuits, as, of course, the dangers of hitting a wall are tenfold. Hodgson rightly made that exact point on TNT Sports 2 (17/5, 1:29 pm) during the first red flag.
“The dangers are the difference of speed,” he said. “It’s also why everyone’s always going on about safety, making these tracks safer and pushing barriers back, because strange things can happen in strange places on a track.
“It’s another reason why, I’m going to state the obvious, a lot of people don’t want to go on road circuits, because of these sorts of weird situations. You can have a weird collision like that and you haven’t got the space, the room.”
Was it right to restart the Catalan GP after two big accidents?
MotoGP will head to Adelaide for the Australian GP in 2027, replacing Phillip Island. It will be an all-new circuit, and it has been widely criticised for the exact reasons that everyone saw today at Barcelona.
With little run-off areas and space between the track and the barrier, Marquez had an accident that could have been a lot worse. At circuits like Adelaide next year, the dangers are exactly the same, if not even worse.
New owners Liberty Media simply have to rethink their plans and really consider rider safety as their main priority moving forward. Everyone dares not to think about what could have happened to Marquez and Zarco on another day, especially on a circuit where the dangers are so glaringly obvious.
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