If, like me, you enjoy a bit of chaos disrupting proceedings now and again, then the start of the MotoGP race in Austin was a treat. Or rather, what was supposed to be the start, before Marc Márquez tried to use what he thought the rules were to his advantage, and turn an uncertain situation back into a sure thing.
Marc Márquez had a plan, and he was lucky that it only half succeeded. Because if the riders had stood their ground and not followed him into pit lane, he would have found out that what he thought had been a brilliant piece of interpreting the rules was actually completely wrong. He, his team, and Ducati, were working on an old version of the rules, and a quick skim of the MotoGP Tyre Change Protocol. They thought they were being clever. But they narrowly missed being tripped up by a mixture of arrogance and ignorance.
What happened?
The trouble really started earlier in the day. After a dry Moto3 race, a light rain started shortly before the Moto2 race, causing confusion on the Moto2 grid. Almost everyone bar five riders – Joe Roberts, Filip Salac, Senna Agius, Albert Arenas, and the then championship leader Manu Gonzalez – started on wets. The five riders on slicks came to rue their decision, the track never drying out and circulating 20 seconds or more a lap slower, until the track started to dry out a little.
After the Moto2 race finished, more rain arrived, and when the MotoGP riders went out for their sighting lap, it was clear it was wet. “On my sighting lap, coming to the grid was full wet, and I didn’t expect it to get dry that quick. I was almost sure we would do 6 or 7 laps at least with the rain tires,” Johann Zarco said. Conditions were so tricky that Fabio Quartararo crashed on his sighting lap.
But between the end of the Moto2 race and the scheduled start of the MotoGP race, the temperature started to rise. It was clear that the track was going to dry out, the only question was how quickly. Fast enough to choose slicks, or would you lose more in five or six laps on slicks than if you started on wets and swapped to slicks?
“Honestly, when I saw that it was starting to dry, the starting grid was completely dry, looking to the first corner was dry, and I was with a dry bike with wet tires,” Pecco Bagnaia told the press conference after the race.
But with so much at stake, nobody wanted to gamble. Riders and teams were looking at each other, following what others were doing. Because almost everyone was on wet tires, even those who had doubts were choosing to start on wets.
“When I arrived to the grid, I said to the guys, ‘it’s dry. So keep a dry bike because will be like this’,” Alex Márquez told the press conference. “But later on we were in a really good position, so you cannot take the risk. If you are 20th or something like this, you can take the risk. Then ten minutes to the end, they said to me, everybody is on wet tires, so I said, OK, change to wet again.”
Less than three minutes before the start, Marc Márquez ran off the grid, and his team started to roll his machine into pit lane. This caused a chain reaction, as other riders followed suit, running back to their bikes in pit lane on slicks. Panic and chaos ensued, with guests, mechanics, riders, bikes, and officials all caught out in pit lane. A few riders stayed on their bikes, including both Trackhouse Racing riders, Brad Binder, and Enea Bastianini, who had already decided to start with slicks, and Johann Zarco, who had stuck with wets.
The riders who had headed into the pits had by now all jumped on their bikes and were headed to the pit lane exit, dodging mechanics, bikes, and staff as they went.
Shortly after the 1 minute mark, as the riders on the grid started their engines, Maverick Viñales, who had run off the front of the grid, ran all the way down pit lane, then back onto the grid, ran all the way up to the front again, and started pulling his bike back onto the grid where his mechanics were wheeling it off. At that point, the red flags came out, and Race Direction decided to reset and begin a new start procedure.
Did Marc Márquez do this on purpose?
The short answer is yes. “I really know the rules, and how to do, and how to be on the limit all the time,” Márquez told Dorna’s After The Flag show. He expanded on that afterward, when speaking to reporters. “We did everything perfect today, especially that strategy on leaving the grid. Because I realized, it was raining a lot when 15 minutes remained and the back straight was full wet. But then when 7, 8 minutes remained, I realized that we did a mistake with the wet tires. But then also I understood that most of the riders were with rain tires.”
At that point, he decided it was time to run back to the pits for his dry bike. “I asked to Rigamonti, my chief mechanic, is the second bike ready? He told me yes and then I say ‘OK, maybe I will leave the grid’. Because I knew that if more than 10 riders followed me, the start will be delayed and everybody will start on the grid. So that is what I tried to force, that everybody follows me, because like this everybody will restart with slicks and the race was in the point where I wanted.”
Márquez was perfectly placed to force the hand of the other riders. Starting from pole meant that everyone else on the grid was watching him. And because he had been fastest throughout, had won the sprint race and was the favorite to win the grand prix, he knew that all eyes were on him.
Márquez was also gambling that even if 10 riders didn’t follow him into the pits, he would still gain an advantage by starting on slicks. “If they didn’t follow me, I start last and then I try to come back during the race because I had the pace,” he said. He believed that he could start from last on the grid on slicks, get past anyone on wets in the first few laps of the race, and still be faster than the other riders starting on slicks.
Wrong, wrong, wrong
The problem with Marc Márquez’ plan was it was based on a series of grave mistakes. “I really know the rules,” Márquez told Dorna. But the thing is, he didn’t know the rules. His plan nearly came off because he got lucky, until he lost the front on a wet kerb at Turn 4. But his interpretation of the rules was fundamentally wrong.
Let’s start with this statement, “I knew that if more than 10 riders followed me, the start will be delayed”. This comes from the a document called the MotoGP Grid Tyre Change Protocol 2025, handed to all of the teams before the start of the season. In the section on a wet race starting on a drying track, it includes the following:
“If more than 10 riders will start the race from pit lane, the start will be delayed and a new start (Quick Start) will take place.”
Márquez was relying on 11 or more riders having to start from pit lane. But if you leave your bike on the grid, and swap to a bike with the same tires, then you start from the back of the grid. And if you swap to a bike with different tires, then you start from your grid position and have to serve a ride-through penalty.
Even if 10 riders had followed Márquez’ example, they wouldn’t have started from pit lane. They would have either started from the back of the grid, or from their original grid position. There are a lot of reasons for having to start from pit lane (too many to get into here), but none of them have to do with leaving the grid to swap to a bike with different tires.
Wrong about penalties
Then there’s Márquez’ statement on if he didn’t get 10 riders to follow him. “If they didn’t follow me, I start last and then I try to come back during the race because I had the pace.” This, too, is incorrect.
Márquez left a bike on wet tires, and would have swapped to a bike with slicks. Section 1.18.7 of the FIM Grand Prix Regulations is clear on what happens in that case. Any rider who makes a “weather-related tire change (rain to slick or vice versa, front or rear or both)” will start the warm up lap from pit lane, then take their qualifying grid position, and serve a ride-through penalty, usually within the first 3 laps of the race.
In summary, Marc Márquez thought that when he left the grid to swap from a bike with wets to a bike with slicks, he could either force Race Direction to declare a new race if enough riders followed him, or start from the back of the grid on slicks and pass everyone. He was wrong on both counts.
Why didn’t Márquez and the other riders leaving the grid get a ride-through penalty in the new race?
When the start is delayed and a new (Quick Start) start procedure is declared, riders are allowed to choose different tires without punishment. A delayed start means a new start. In effect, the slate is wiped clean in terms of tire choice, and the new start is a new race.
Why did Marc Márquez and his team get this wrong?
The answer to that is they appear to have been working on a mixture of the old grid rules and the new grid rules. Rules were changed after Argentina in 2018, when the entire grid bar Jack Miller rolled up to the start on wets, then realized the track was drying out, and rushed back into the pits to swap to slicks.
The 2018 rules stated that if you wanted to change bikes, you had to go into the pits, start the warm up lap from pit lane, then line up at the back of the grid. The trouble was, 23 riders had changed to bikes with slicks, while only Jack Miller had been brave enough to choose slicks in the first place. “The back of the grid” in that case would have been on the front row, next to Jack Miller.
At the 2018 Le Mans round, the rules were changed to add a ride-through penalty for anyone changing bikes after arriving on the grid after the sighting lap. You start from your original grid position and then serve a ride-through. That is effectively the same as if you had started on the wrong tires, then had to come in for a bike swap. That was deemed to be a fair and proportionate response.
At the same meeting, at the request of the riders, it was decided that if more than 10 riders had to start from pit lane then a new start would be declared. This, however, was unrelated to the rule change about bike swaps. It had come up as part of the discussion in the Safety Commission with the riders and been added to the rule book at the same time.
Shortly afterward, a protocol was issued to the teams and riders containing the new rules, and all of the details of the start procedures in wet weather. These short protocol documents are meant to make it easy for teams to find the information they need, rather than having to wade through the huge FIM rules document.
The confusion for Marc Márquez and his team seems to be that they thought that the penalty for the bike swap was still the same as in the 2018 rules, but that they could also force a restart if enough riders left the grid.
The mistake Márquez made there was because he thought it was enough to get riders to leave the grid and swap bikes in pit lane. But the protocol states they have to be starting from pit lane, which they wouldn’t have been.
In essence, Marc Márquez was lucky. If a restart hadn’t been declared, then he would have been called in for a ride-through penalty, and found out exactly how wrong his interpretation of the rules had been.
Why was the race actually red flagged?
The delay for the race had nothing to do with the number of riders who left the grid. The race was delayed, simply because a very dangerous situation had arisen. Here’s Race Director Mike Webb’s official explanation:
“We called for a delay and then quick start procedure due to safety concerns. Given the number of riders, bikes and pit staff on the grid and in the pitlane area, it was impossible to start the Warm Up lap. A new race start was the safest way to respond to the unprecedented circumstances at the start of the Grand Prix. We will analyse the situation together with the teams and revisit the regulations.”
That danger is clear when you watch the footage back. The sprint into the pits saw a melee of bikes, riders, mechanics, IRTA officials, Dorna staff and security staff, camera people, umbrella models, and guests. People were having to be bundled out of the way of oncoming bikes.
From the helicopter shot, you can see more of the chaos in pit lane. Bikes being pushed off the grid, bikes riding down pit lane, bikes being pushed down pit lane in the opposite direction, crowds thronging everywhere.
At some point, Maverick Viñales appears on the grid, running forward toward the front pit lane gate. He had already run through there, run the length of pit lane, presumably found his second bike not ready or else changed his mind, then ran back onto the grid from the rear pit lane gate and was running along the grid, on the track, back toward his other bike at the front gate. Once there, he proceeded to pull that bike back onto the grid again.
This was a ridiculously dangerous situation, and it was the right call by Race Direction to wave the red flags and declare a new race. That allowed everyone to take their positions, and start the race as normal. The chaos in pit lane was a disaster waiting to happen, and resetting was the best option.
Who is to blame, and should they be penalized?
Who is to blame for all this chaos? You could point the finger at Marc Márquez, but he did nothing that was against the rules. He is allowed to leave the grid and swap to another bike. He has to be allowed to, in case of a technical problem or other issue. He is even allowed to leave the grid because he believes he is better off on a bike on different tires.
You could just as easily contend that the blame lies with the lemming-like behavior of the rest of the grid. Once Márquez started to leave the grid, they could have just stood their ground and stayed on. Indeed, they might even have been better to do so, as Márquez would have had to serve a ride-through penalty. Then again, they would all have had to come in to swap bikes, which is exactly equivalent to a ride-through penalty.
The underlying problem is that neither Marc Márquez and his team, nor the other riders on the grid know the rules. Márquez’ misinterpretation is as bad as the ignorance of the other riders and teams. Having half a clue is effectively the same as having zero clue, and both of these are an absolute failure, ultimately of the teams.
It is the job of the team to know the rules inside out. That doesn’t meant that everyone in the team needs to have memorized the entire rulebook, but each team should have someone they can call on to give the correct answer in cases like this.
The factories and teams collectively spend tens of millions to go racing, pay their riders millions to try to win, employ teams of highly-paid engineers to produce the fastest motorcycles on the face of the planet, then risk throwing it all away because they haven’t read the rules properly. For want of a nail, as the old saying has it.
Dorna have produced a short video, showing the build up to the grid chaos, and the aftermath. It includes a statement from Race Director Mike Webb explaining the rules and the background. It is probably quicker than reading all I have written about this. But it is marginally less comprehensive.
Was this fair on the riders who had correctly chosen to start on slicks?
The short answer to that is no. “You know where I stand on that,” said Jack Miller, the rider who had suffered in Argentina 2018. “I should have one (win) extra next to my name. So I ain’t ever going to feel sorry for someone getting f****d over by the rules, when there is actually a rule now. There wasn’t then.”
After the race, Ai Ogura, who had lined up on slicks, was his usual calm self, but he could not hide his disappointment. “I feel so sorry for my team, because they made the right choice. At the end, what happened was, who made the right choice gained nothing, who made the wrong choice lost nothing. For me, for my team, it’s quite like not really good. But it’s OK.”
Earlier, speaking to MotoGP’s Jack Appleyard, Trackhouse Racing team boss Davide Brivio had struggled to contain his fury. “I’m very upset, to be honest, because that’s not the way to manage a start,” he said. “Because we took a gamble, we took the right decision. When it was the time to start, they stop everything because some riders… the riders who leave the grid, they left the grid, they made the wrong choice. Why they didn’t allow us to start on the right choice? Now everything is gone.”
The trouble with this is that it is not a situation which is easy to fix. The race was delayed because an unsafe situation had developed, and to prevent a serious accident or injury from happening. Race Direction and IRTA are already clamping down on the number of people in pit lane, radically restricting the access of journalists to pit lane during sessions, for example.
Are IRTA/Race Direction to blame for losing control?
You might want to point the finger of blame at IRTA, or Dorna, or Race Direction, for allowing the situation to escalate. That feels fundamentally unfair to me. The grid procedure was absolutely standard right up to the moment Marc Márquez makes a bolt for it. He takes almost all the grid by surprise – only Pecco Bagnaia hinted he suspected Márquez might be up to something, when he saw him standing beside his bike instead of on it – and chaos unfolded so quickly it was impossible to get a grip on it.
The chaos was a result of the herd behavior of riders. And as any psychologist studying the behavior of crowds can tell, it only takes a couple of people to start off a stampede.
How can we prevent this from happening again?
Ah, that’s the million dollar question. The Grand Prix regulations are drawn up with the underlying assumption that everyone involved is (mostly) acting in good faith. Everyone wants to see fair, safe, and exciting racing, and the rules are written with that in mind.
The trouble is, of course, that the people competing in grand prix motorcycle racing are both highly paid and unhealthily ambitious. To borrow a phrase from legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly, “Somebody said that football’s a matter of life and death to you. I said, listen, it’s more important than that.”
So riders, teams, and engineers read the rules, looking for any gap or crack to exploit. When spec electronics were introduced, Gigi Dall’Igna and Ducati started chasing aerodynamics and ride-height devices as ways of gaining an advantage. When Marc Márquez entered the class and started thinking about flag-to-flag races, he realized he could save around a second by jumping directly from one bike to the other, saving the two steps to get from bike to bike.
Marc Márquez read the rules for wet races, and thought he saw an advantage. As it happened, he completely misinterpreted the rules and got it wrong. But knowing Márquez, this will merely inspire him to read the rules again, and try to find another loophole to drive a coach and horses through.
There have been very few people who have had such a huge impact on MotoGP’s rule book. The penalty point system, introduced in 2013 and scrapped in 2017, came as a result of Márquez’ propensity to seek out the limits of acceptable riding. The rookie rule (introduced to prevent Ben Spies jumping straight to a factory seat in MotoGP) was scrapped to allow Marc Márquez to jump on a Repsol Honda. The reorganization of powers in Race Direction and handing off penalty powers to FIM Stewards as a result of Sepang 2015. And you just know there is more to come.
Better rules?
The problem at hand is how to reward those who take a risk on the grid, while ensuring that the race can start safely. You can’t prevent riders from leaving the grid, because there are legitimate reasons for doing so, and a ban would produce dangerous situations.
And of course, there is the fact that Race Direction and the FIM cannot be in the business of predicting the future. With hindsight, Ai Ogura, Brad Binder and others were robbed, by not having a chance to start on slicks while the others were on wets. But if it had started to rain again 30 seconds before the start, then that gamble would have gone wrong.
The way the start played out in Austin still seems fundamentally unfair. Even more so, given that it was manipulated by Marc Márquez, forcing the planned start to be red flagged and a new start scheduled. Fixing that would require another rule change, which opens the door to another loophole to exploit.
Can you punish a rider for trying to manipulate the system? Proving intent is always difficult, and certainly not something you can do in 30 seconds in Race Control. It certainly feels like Marc Márquez deserves a penalty, but there is nothing in the rule book to point to and say, that’s what you did wrong. Until the crime of “being an ***hole” is added to the rules, there’s not much we can do. And if it were, we’d be punishing 90% of the riders on the grid every week.
If I had to design a fairer system to cope with a similar situation, I would want to have a system of staggered starts, where the riders who lined up for the first start with the right tires are allowed to start the new race at the front of the grid, and the rest of the riders, starting later, with a delay of 5 or 10 seconds. But that would require extra infrastructure at most circuits, and extra sets of lights. The opportunity for confusion and dangerous situations is increased.
The truth is that none of this is easy, and those that claim there are simple solutions have not studied the situation well enough. What we currently have is a terrible set of rules covering a complicated situation. But it may well be that these are the least worst set of rules on the table.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider supporting MotoMatters.com. You can help by either taking out a subscription, supporting us on Patreon, by making a donation, or contributing via our GoFundMe page. You can find out more about subscribing to MotoMatters.com here.