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Honda factory rider Marc Marquez believes he’ll be closer to the frontrunning pace thanks to the cancellation of MotoGP’s Finnish round extending the summer break, but riders have raised concerns over the fallback plan of two races at the Red Bull Ring.
Still in a fight to return to full fitness after sitting out almost the entire 2020 season due to right arm injury, Marquez missed the opening Qatar double-header recovering, but has scored top-10s in the following two races at Algarve and Jerez respectively.
“For me it’s better,” said Marquez about the calendar reshuffle when asked by The Race. “We’ll have the summer break before, so I’ll have more time to be ready.
“It’s not a question mark about circuits or one being stronger for this bike or that, because at the moment I’m not strong at any circuit.
“Maybe in a left-hand circuit I can be a little better for me because I feel more normal in left-hand corners and the performance is a bit more normal, and I’m riding well.
“Finland was before the summer break and now I have more weeks to prepare and to arrive in a better condition. I know that as soon as I’m in a good condition, I’ll be closer to the top guys.”
A number of Marquez’s rivals have raised concerns about the addition of a second Red Bull Ring race, which also happened last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A series of high-speed crashes at last year’s two races at the Austrian circuit sparked serious safety concerns among riders, especially when contact between Johann Zarco and Franco Morbidelli sent their bikes hurtling across the circuit, with Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales lucky to escape serious injury when Morbidellis riderless bike threaded the needle between them.
That prompted calls for Turns 2 and 3 to be reshaped for 2021, to make sure that any fall at the fast left kink didn’t cause machines or riders to careen towards the following corner, a slow 90º right. However, with work not yet begun to make adjustments nearly a year later, Suzuki rider Alex Rins says that it’s a cause for concern that they’re returning to an unmodified track.
“For sure it’s not the best track for us, for the Suzuki, and looking at the safety, we spoke mainly about Austria in the last safety commission,” Rins said when asked by The Race.
“We spoke about the possible new layout to avoid the corner where Morbidelli and Zarco crashed, and what can I say…I would prefer another track to do two races.
“But it is what it is, and unfortunately we’re not able to go to Finland. It looks like a good track, but we’re just going to have to wait.”
Aprilia racer Aleix Espargaro, normally someone not afraid to voice his opinions, was in agreement with his fellow Spaniard too, acknowledging not only that there are serious safety concerns but also that he believes these double-header race weekends diminish from the status of the world championship.
“First of all, I know Dorna are doing their best to run this championship with the COVID conditions,” he said when asked by The Race.
“But I don’t like two races at all at the same track. Even if they decided to do two at Aragon, my favourite track, I don’t like it at all.
“You’re not doing a pure and good championship.
“Austria is even worse because everything is just straight with three corners.
“The good thing is that we talk every safety commission about it, but unfortunately for 2021 there won’t be any modifications. Two races there with no changes obviously doesn’t make the riders happy at all.”
Despite the Ducati’s previous domination at the Austrian circuit, its rider Jack Miller said the Red Bull Ring is a “scary track to go to”.
With Ducati out only once since MotoGP returned to the track in 2016, when Miller was mugged by KTM’s Miguel Oliveira in a last-corner scrap last year, he says that the safety issues are a worry even though he knows that he can ride well there.
“I’d prefer to have six weeks of summer break,” he joked, “but I think every Ducati rider had a grin on their face today.
“We saw last year that KTM won the second one there so we have some work to do, but I’m excited.
“I don’t know what work they’ve done but we’ll ask again this afternoon, because it’s a scary track to go to.
“I would have preferred a chicane in the middle between corners one and three, something to slow it down a little bit, but they weren’t able to react in time.
“The changes they made last time helped, and the flow of the corner with those two corners last year was special.
“I can’t see them happening again but I wouldn’t mind having something to slow us down a bit there.”
