On Friday afternoon at the Australian Grand Prix, Mooney VR46 Racing Team’s Luca Marini spoke about the potential of MotoGP™ riders having a ‘red flag button’ on their bikes, allowing them to send information back to Race Direction during a race or session.
When asked about dealing with high winds at Phillip Island and potential crashes, something that affected Moto2™ Free Practice 1 when several crashes brought out the red flags on Friday, the Italian went on to explain this ‘red flag button’ possibility.
“With the wind like this, braking in Turn 1, you go out of the track. And after a crash, red flag. It's difficult. It's difficult also to take this decision. It's not an easy job for them because they are not on track, they are here, and from here you don't feel the wind.
“So we are asking to them, also in the Safety Commission, to have like a button to push and maybe if 80% of the grid pushes this button, also in a race for example, they can have a red flag. To just send more information. Because if you look at the race from the TV, you don't see anything.”
At the minute, riders show their desire to have a race or session red-flagged – as we saw in the Moto2™ Thai GP recently – by raising their hand. This signal tells Race Direction that the riders who are putting their hand up feel the race or session should be stopped, but Marini believes a button on the handlebars is a much better solution, especially with the advances in technology we have nowadays.
“I think it's now the technology is much better, and when you lift your hand, you just see the three or four guys in the front. They can have something in their mind to have an advantage for lifting their hand in that moment,” commented Marini.
“But when 80% of the riders, even the last one, even the 16th place pushes a button, and sends a signal that it is a dangerous situation, it's OK, it's like a vote, it's like a political situation. I think it will be easier for them if we can send them information. Like in F1, but they can speak. It's too difficult to speak, but push a button, we can do easily because we are all around all the lap pushing something. So one more is not a problem. We are open to other things as well, but this was the easiest one.”