His title-winning campaign was partly overshadowed by a drink-driving offence in Ibiza during the summer break of the 2022 season. Then at the San Marino Grand Prix, Bagnaia made a clunky defence of his use of a Dennis Rodman tribute helmet.
But the latest Bagnaia-centred controversy following the French Grand Prix has been an unwholly unfair episode for the Italian.
Asked in a written media debrief after the grand prix on Sunday at Le Mans what he attributed the high rate of early-race crashes we’ve seen in 2023 to, Bagnaia gave an honest answer.
“From my point of view, we have been trying to win on the first few laps for two years now,” Bagnaia said. “And a rider who is behind, who doesn't have the potential to ride at the front, tries to overtake six riders at once. And that's not how it works. We all push to the limit and, if I brake on the limit, looking for something else is a mistake, and even more so in the first part of the races. Most of the crashes happen at the beginning because there is too much turmoil.”
He added that this was a result of the field spread being so narrow, with everyone on either factory machinery or a year-old bike that is at a very highly competitive level. At Le Mans, the top 12 in qualifying were covered by 0.891 seconds, with pole decided by 0.058s and the front row split by 0.137s.
In the highly attritional grand prix, the lap time spread of each rider’s fastest effort (considering only the full-time runners and not the three replacement riders) was a staggering 0.620s from race winner Marco Bezzecchi’s 1m31.855s down to Fabio Di Giannantonio’s 1m32.475s (which was the 18th-best lap of the GP).
Bagnaia’s statement referenced “the Fantastic Four”, describing the era of Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa. Take the 2016 French GP, where three of those riders were still in their prime (Stoner retired in 2012), and the comparison between then and now is stark.
Source: Autosport