Petrux in the sandstorm on the Tech 3 KTM, which was new to him – for Pol Espargaró, Danilo Petrucci and the rookies, the start of the season in Losail was combined with tests there and only reduced to 4 days was a veritable disaster. Usually MotoGP tested a total of 12 days before the new season started. The planned fifth day of testing in the desert state of Qatar fell victim to the sand that was blown onto the track.

To more or less justified criticism on Saturday in the Le Mans press conference

FIM and Dorna caused real chaos with their calendar planning for November 6, 2020. Not only we were amazed at the time how one could come up with such a nonsensical plan. With Argentina and USA as rounds 3 and 4 and tests in Sepang, breakdown after breakdown was as good as inevitable and there were a number of changes. This did not change anything in the usual self-praise of Mr. Ezpeleta and his followers. It was astonishing for us how little public criticism there was of tests and double races in Losail. At most, some things got through to us behind closed doors, but even the drivers hardly complained.

WorldSBK after the start of the 1990 race in Le Mans at the Dunlop flyover shortly before La Chapelle with Fabrizio Pirovano (Yamaha) in front of Baldassare Monti (Honda), the Belgian Stéphane Mertens (Honda, No. 2), and on the far left, local hero Raymond Roche (Ducati, No. 3). For more about the earlier years see our richly illustrated history.

Some drivers’ criticism of the Le Mans date

The fairy tale of the bad Le Mans date is just as persistent as that of the supposedly uncompetitive Honda RC213V. To start with, we really appreciate Aleix Espargaró as a guy, driver and person, and he is the most bullied MotoGP rider at the beginning of the 2021 season for us. Nobody has driven as well as he and in return had so few photos on the official website the Dorna stand by themselves. After the Portuguese GP, there were umpteen pictures of Marquez and Rossi in their portal, but not a single one of the Aprilia driver, who was significantly more successful than the two and many others. But the criticism the Catalan gave at the press conference cannot be left as it is, he may please forgive us.

Start of the 500 cc race in Le Mans on May 18, 1969 – in great weather, Giacomo Agostini won on the MV Agusta. The northern Italian was vastly superior on his bike from Varese at this time. Usually he lapped the majority of his opponents in the races and often only three or four of them made it to see the chequered flag on the same lap as him.

Poetry and truth – the reality of the Le Mans Grand Prix
The main problem for people like Aleix who make allegations at the press conference is that there are archives that don’t lie. Ours is probably one of the most extensive ever, created from a merger with several collections of image and text material. Just like our history area, it is constantly growing, and we turned the pages a little briefly. Because 2020 should not be counted with the date in October due to the pandemic, we have calculated the average from 2014 to 2019. The result is an average temperature value of exactly 20 degrees Celsius for these 6 years and not a single race (all taking place in May) was held when it was raining. This means that we consider the Catalan’s criticism to be sufficiently invalid as far as the date for the French Grand Prix is concerned.

Le Mans in comparison with other routes, the respective visitor record in bold and the rain races in italics since 2005 until the end of the spectator permit due to the corona pandemic.
The statistics of the drivers with their placements in Le Mans since 2015, of which only a few are still there who were already there back then.
The rain statistics – here Le Mans is in the top midfield, but only thanks to 2020 ahead of Brno, before that there was still a tie and, as far as we know, there were never many complaints about the date.

What do we learn from it?

It’s basically very simple and somehow understandable. If a driver fails for whatever reason, as in the example of Aleix, he looks for an outlet in the first trouble. With the man from Granollers it was the date and the conditions in France. It was tough for him to miss Q2. But it was almost brutal for the proud Spaniard to endure the fact that his team-mate and underdog Lorenzo Savadori was the fastest of them all in the first qualifying. Remember the rule of thumb of every racing driver: Always be faster than your teammate first and this went wrong on Saturday. Without wanting to offend Aleix, but we are sceptical whether he would have complained about the Le Mans date in May if he had landed on the front row. Likewise, Marc Marquez did not complain about the rain falling too late after his preliminary best time. Otherwise, the 6-time world champion would have been on pole instead of Fabio Quartararo.

Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha, left) and his former team-mate Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT) – the two had little reason to complain on Saturday, but they are concerned about the weather because neither of them undoubtedly see themselves as rain specialists.

Interesting example of the alleged guilt of the marshals
Another good example was provided by Miguel Oliveira, who only landed on starting position 10, with his statement at the press conference. After his fall, the Portuguese complained that he had not seen any flags warning of rain. Too bad that he actually has to see raindrops on his own visor and can see with his own eyes whether the track is wet or dry. In addition, Takaaki Nakagami sincerely noted, as always, that he saw that the track was already wet. The Japanese even apologized for his bad starting position because he didn’t want to risk ending up in the gravel. So much for the alleged guilt of the marshals, who, according to the allusion by KTM rider Oliveira, should have been to blame for his fall.

Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM) on the pursuit of Maverick Viñales (Monster Energy Yamaha) – the Portuguese’s frustration is understandably growing after his season opener simply failed. Perhaps Pol Espargaró is complicit in joining Repsol Honda? Without the Catalans, the oranges usually seem completely at a loss.

Unless otherwise mentioned, applies to all images (© MotoGP).