So, who else.....

[CYCLE_MONKEY]

.....thinks Biaggi got fucked by the officials in the second WSB race last weekend at Monza?

[Tylar]

I think it was excessive.

[dirkterrell]

Agreed. The penalty was way too excessive for what he did. Bad, bad call on the part of the officials.

[tecknojoe]

Yea a little excessive. However, I very much dislike how a rider can blow a turn on that track with 0 consequences. "ooooop, fucked that up. I'll just stand up and pretend nothing happend"

[CYCLE_MONKEY]

I gotta say, that was the WORST penalty call I've ever seen in almost 30 years of watching racing. He didn't do it on purpose, he didn't gain a position, if he DID gain any time, it was an accident, and it was very obvious he TRIED to slow enough to make it up, and 2nd place was so far behind it didn't matter anyways. TOTALLY out of whack, whereas Simoncelli's penalty was deserved, and then some.

[Matt]

That was an excessive penalty.

[sprtbkbabe]

http://www.worldsbk.com/en/news/5-ne...husiasts-.html


An open letter to all Max Biaggi fans and SBK enthusiasts

Monday, 16 May 2011 17:05

I kindly ask you to devote a couple of minutes of your time to this letter of mine, in which I would like to explain the facts that occurred at Monza during the weekend of May 8th.
First of all Monza is not like any other track, and Superbike has to share it with an extremely important event like Formula 1. It is simply not possible therefore to have gravel run-off areas at the chicanes because this solution does not go down particularly well in Formula 1.

The only exception to this is the Variante Ascari.

As can easily be imagined, if a rider makes a mistake on the entry to the Ascari and ends up in the gravel, either he crashes or he loses a lot of time in returning to the track, so in this particular case it is not necessary to adopt any special measure for the chicane.

The question of the first chicane (the Prima Variante) and the Roggia chicane is different, as they have tarmac run-off areas. For the last three years at Monza white lines have been painted in these areas. The lines take the form of a ‘funnel' that ends with a ‘pathway' about one metre wide that, if followed by the rider, forces him to slow down and return to the track outside the natural line of all those riders who have gone through the chicane in a normal way.

FIM homologation of the track specifically rules out the presence of barriers/straw bale chicane in the run-off areas.

The Race Direction, of which I form part together with Igor Eškinja and Giulio Bardi, for this reason decided to convene all riders on Thursday afternoon for an extraordinary briefing to explain to everyone (those who had already raced at Monza and those who were encountering the circuit for the first time) the correct way to return to the track in case of a mistake in these two chicanes.

The briefing lasted almost one hour. It was explained to riders, with the help of two giant blow-up images of the chicanes hung on the walls of the briefing room, that if they made an error, the only way, with absolutely no exception whatsoever, to return to the track was to use this ‘funnel' path, otherwise they would be penalized with a ride-through. We also explained that they must gain no advantage from cutting through the chicane, either in their lap time or in their race position, and that in this latter case by raising their arm they would have surrendered that position to riders whom they had unintentionally overtaken.

Many riders posed specific questions and we repeated over and over again that any rider who returned to the track without respecting the pathway painted on the tarmac would be punished with a ride-through penalty, the only sanction foreseen by the FIM for these infringements of the rulebook.

Biaggi was not present at the briefing, due to his private commitments, but he was represented by Francesco Guidotti, the Aprilia Team Manager.

Throughout the entire weekend we always used the same criteria with respect to every rider who cut through the chicanes, in every category.

These are the facts.

Probably I will not have been able to convince many of you, but at least I have clearly and honestly explained the way things went.

I would like to conclude on a personal note. In life sometimes coherence and correctness force one to take difficult and painful decisions. For me Max is not only a great champion, as well as an intelligent and sensitive person. He is above all a friend, one with whom I have shared many moments, pleasant but also difficult, both on and off the track. I will leave it to you to imagine how difficult it must have been for me, together with the other members of the Race Direction, to take this decision.

Thank you for your kind attention.
Paolo Ciabatti

[dirkterrell]

Well, that does clear it up a bit.

[Tylar]

Well, that does clear it up a bit.

Agreed and I still think it's excessive, but apparently it was well communicated and discussed prior to racing.

[spdu4ia]

OH....well.... um.... there you go. Does this mean they will have a "one hour" meeting for MotoGP and require Simoncelli to be there about how you shouldn't cause another rider bodily harm and destroy their season because your riding like an asshat?

[sprtbkbabe]

OH....well.... um.... there you go. Does this mean they will have a "one hour" meeting for MotoGP and require Simoncelli to be there about how you shouldn't cause another rider bodily harm and destroy their season because your riding like an asshat?

HUH?

[GuitarX]

HUH?

LMFAO!!!! That silly smiley face totally looks like Simoncelli! Damn that's funny.

Back on track, yes the ride-through penalty is definitely excessive and totally sucks for Biaggi. It was communicated quite well to the riders however so I guess the rules committee's asses are covered. I wish they would have just taken the .3 seconds he supposedly gained off his final time. He still would have won the race as he deserved to.

Maybe they feel that's not enough of a punishment to stop the riders from using that area of the track "incorrectly" though and the riders would choose to lose a few tenths off that lap and then all hell would break loose. Evidently.

[CYCLE_MONKEY]

HUH?

Man, lookit dat nappy-headed Dago!

[CYCLE_MONKEY]

But.....the letter says nothing about whether he actually DID violate the "funnel". It HINTS at it, but did he REALLY? From the video on SPEED you couldn't see it. do they have a better view that showed it to the race stewards? If he in fact DID, well, then he deserved it.

[Mother Goose]

If you're in the lead by that much, you shouldn't be blowing corners like that anyways. Not like he had to out brake anyone.

[CYCLE_MONKEY]

If you're in the lead by that much, you shouldn't be blowing corners like that anyways. Not like he had to out brake anyone.

Well, he was probably trying to push and build a good cushion, it seemed like his tires were going off, and I remember some very public and stupid spins and wrecks when Schumacher (F1) slowed down and got out of his rythym and made a stupid mistake.

[Mother Goose]

Wasn't he up by over 5 seconds? I think that's a good cushion.

[CYCLE_MONKEY]

You can never have too big of a cushion. Remember when Massa lost the F1 world title 2 years ago because he was winning and one of the cars behind him had a 20sec cushion on the last lap over Hamilton in like 4th place, and then Hamilton caught and passed the guy giving him the title by one point?

[Mother Goose]

No....

[CYCLE_MONKEY]

No....

I thought you followed F1 Wicky? Ah well. I can;t fault Biaggi for trying to stretch his lead out, but if he "violated" the funnel, well, then he deserved it. Rules are rules. I just didn't see it on video, so i hope they had a good enough look at it to give him the penalty if he deserved it.