THE DEATH OF Marco Simoncelli during Sunday’s Malaysian MotoGP Grand Prix cast a pall over the world of motorsport and triggered a debate about race safety.
But according to the Guardian’s Paul Weaver, Franco Uncini, the MotoGP riders’ safety representative, is adamant there was little else race officials could have done to minimize the risk of a fatal collision.
Voicing his opinion in a radio interview, Uncini claimed to be “very satisfied” by the sport’s safety standards.
“There was an abundance of safety there, the circuit is perfectly inside the limits of safety as per our requests. What happened was a crash like many others. The only problem is that the bikes were close to one another so two other riders arrived and hit Marco’s head and neck. That’s what made the crash so dramatic.”
In addition to noting that “the power to change fate” lay beyond the reach of race officials, Uncino paid tribute Simoncelli, a man he described as “an exceptional character”.
One of the MotoGP’s most exciting prospects, Simoncelli’s death has been met with an outpouring of grief from all sectors of the motorsport community.
Among those to publicly express their condolences was McClaren F1 driver Jenson Button.
