Wheelspin at Bagnaia and Aldeguer: What really happened at the start?

(Motorsport-Total.com) - At the start of the MotoGP sprint at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, things got tight in the opening meters. Francesco Bagnaia , who started from third position, and Fermin Aldeguer , who was right behind him in sixth, experienced severe wheelspin coming off the line.

Both drifted slightly to the inside. Drivers behind them, accelerating at their best, had to swerve. Fortunately, there were no collisions or accidents, so all drivers survived this dangerous situation unscathed.

The question arises as to why this wheelspin occurred in two Ducati riders. "Even on the warm-up lap, I felt a very strange sensation on the rear wheel," Bagnaia explains. "Then the race started, and I had a lot of wheelspin."

"Maybe we started on the dirty part of the track. That wasn't ideal. But even on the warm-up lap, coming out of Turn 3, I noticed something was wrong. The rear tire started spinning extremely, even on the straights."

"Something that shouldn't happen, but sometimes it does." After the first lap, Bagnaia was 14th. He couldn't hold on to that position for long. He was overtaken, later went off the track in Turn 1, and finally retired in the pits.

"After three laps, the rear tire was completely destroyed," the former world champion notes. "On the straights, I had severe handlebar wobble. And then I entered Turn 1 with no braking effect because the wobble had forced the brake pads apart."

After this incident, Bagnaia was last. "So I decided to retire. I'm waiting for the engineers to explain what was going on. Because, honestly, it was pretty strange." He suspects a tire problem. Michelin announced an investigation.

What Fermin Aldeguer says about his start

And how does Aldeguer view his start, which was practically a carbon copy of Bagnaia's a few meters ahead of him? "I think it was the track," says the MotoGP rookie. "It's hard to understand because sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't."

"The first thing you think about on the bike is that the tire isn't right." But according to Aldeguer, the rear tire wasn't his problem: "The tire wasn't perfect because the feeling was better in qualifying—and it was the same tire."

"But the track temperature was higher. You have to analyze all that data. I was very focused on coming back and racing as well as I could. We finished it, and that's very important."

Aldeguer was ninth after the first lap. He was able to gain positions and work his way back to sixth—his starting position. His race pace made it clear that his rear tire was performing well in the race.

The Spaniard therefore took responsibility for the poor start: "Yes, in the end it was a mistake because I lost a lot of time. If I had controlled the throttle better, maybe this wouldn't have happened at all."

"I was extremely focused on the line, I started – and things like that can happen." Nevertheless, the poor starts of Bagnaia and Aldeguer ruined the sprints of some riders who had made good runs behind them.

Driver behind: "That was close!"

Franco Morbidelli , who started from the middle of the third row, had to avoid Aldeguer. "I started and saw that Fermin had that moment," the Italian describes his view. "So I said to myself: Okay, I'll try to avoid him."

"So I paid attention to him and moved to the left. As soon as I understood that he was okay, I looked ahead again - and there were Bastianini and 'Pecco' standing right in the middle of my starting line."

"So I had to close the throttle and narrowly avoided them. If you look back at the pictures, it was close." As a result, Morbidelli also lost a few places by the first corner and was eleventh after the first lap.

Start phase the next topic in the Security Commission

The two Honda riders , Joan Mir and Luca Marini, also lost positions and the chance of World Championship points in the sprint due to evasive maneuvers. Marini notes that the starts will be a topic of discussion in the safety commission, which always meets on the Friday of a race weekend.

"Yes, we also need to discuss this issue in the Safety Commission. Because on Thursday they asked us not to throw away tear-off visors on the starting grid to avoid such situations."

"But it also takes a bit more effort from the track to clear the starting positions. Because in the past two years, it has happened quite often that the bikes spun heavily in the first part of the acceleration."

"That can be dangerous, and we have to try to avoid it," Marini emphasizes. He believes Bagnaia and Aldeguer's grip issues were due to starting on the right, while the clean racing line is further to the left.

"Yes, that's exactly the reason. When we practice starts in training, if you're standing next to the line, it's always very easy to get strong wheelspin. But okay, when it happens in training, everyone is more careful, and it's not a problem."

"But on the starting grid, that's something very dangerous. We should try to be more safe in situations like that, too." With the holeshot system at the front and the ride height system at the rear, the MotoGP bikes have practically become dragsters.

Motorcycles are lowered extremely when starting

"Especially on this track," says Marini about the Red Bull Ring: "The braking [out of Turn 1] is uphill, so you can also lower the device completely at the front, and the bike will skim the ground safely. So it depends a bit on the first braking zone."

"On some tracks, you have to launch the bike higher, like at Le Mans. But here you can lower it completely. Then you can use full torque in second gear—maybe even first, depending on the manufacturer."

Finally, the Italian reiterates that the issue will certainly be discussed in the next security commission: "We have already had a meeting on the subject of tear-off visors."

"It's true that it's dangerous if a tear-off visor gets under the rear tire. But a dirty patch on the starting grid is also a problem that's just as dangerous. We'll discuss this at the next safety commission."