MXLarge: Obviously we saw what happened on Saturday and I have to admit, while I am not a racer and I respect all the guys who race our sport and my opinion means nothing, I was surprised that they didn't race, and watching the qualifier, it seemed like while the conditions were not great, we have seen a lot worse and racers racing. What is your opinion and how disappointed were you when you saw what happened?
Luongo: Thank you Geoff. Your opinion does matter as you have been in the MXGP world for many years, and while you may not have ridden Motocross you have certainly a lot of experience!
I would like to talk about the facts, and as a professional and the promoter of the Motocross World Championship we have to do all our best to be neutral, to not put emotions in the middle, to base our opinion on facts and keep the main goal as our target, and that is to make the best for the Motocross World and European Championships. And to do this we have to always take into consideration the interests of all the major stake holders who permit MXGP to be on the top of the world and to continue to grow.
In all of our decisions we always have to take in consideration the balance between all the parties: manufacturers, teams, riders, sponsors, local organisers, industries, media, FIM, IMR, all the employees, workers, volunteers and I leave at the end (not at all because they are the least important but because they are the most important) the fans, who allow us all to live with Motocross, because without them there would be no off-road market, there would be no races, no salaries for the riders, teams, IMR, etc, etc, and there would be no dream to keep dreaming. So, keeping this in mind we can come to the facts of Saturday in Ernée for the MXGP qualifying race.
It rained the whole week preceding the MXGP of France in Ernée and the local organiser and IMR staff worked very hard under the rain to set everything up to have a perfect track on Saturday morning. On Saturday morning the conditions were perfect, then in the afternoon before the end of the EMX250 race it started raining heavily, the track got muddy, but the condition was fine. The EMX125 race went well considering it was a muddy race, the same for the MX2 qualifying.
Then, before the start of the MXGP qualifying race some riders started to argue and say they would not start the qualifying race because the track was not well prepared and that it was dangerous. Now, when you analyse this, isn’t it odd that the riders who acted strongly were the first 7 riders (plus another 1 or 2 extra) from the morning’s time-practise results and following the Regulations: if we don’t have a qualifying race the riders line up for the Sunday’s races with the results of the time-practise. Strange huh? And quite frankly if I were to put myself in the position of one of these top riders, and if I could avoid having to race in the mud for about 25 minutes with the difficulties that in a muddy race brings and where many things can happen possibly creating not a good gate pick for Sunday’s racing when I already had a good result in the morning’s time-practise, in a selfish consideration I can understand them, but if decisions for an entire World Championship were taken on selfishness and actions based on ego the Championship would have died a long time ago, so that is why there are entities such as the International Motorcycle Federation and promoters who are able to evaluate the whole situation and take decisions that will be beneficial for the continuity and growth of the Championship, and up until now I think facts can prove that we are going in the right direction.
Coming back to Saturday at Ernée, you will see there was not a French rider (among many other Nationalities) who didn’t want to start the qualifying race, so I would like to know if the race was a Swiss MXGP or the MXGP of Spain, or somewhere else, would those same riders have refused to ride in front of their own crowd? And I would like to point out the following: 1. The track was not dangerous, because kids of 14/15 years raced on it with 125 2 stroke bikes without a problem, so the very professional guys of MXGP could have raced; 2. The organisers, IMR staff and FIM staff worked like crazy (more than 14 hours per day and night) to have the track at its best, and this was shown on Saturday morning and also the conditions of the track on Sunday after the such bad weather were good due to the hard work previously made; 3. On the starting gate some riders used bad words and insulted high officials which is not acceptable, and what is also unacceptable is when some riders tried to oblige other riders (who wanted to continue with the normal procedure and respect the Regulations) to not race.
I think you can imagine the frustration of the local organiser’s staff, FIM staff, IMR staff, all the volunteers who had worked hard under the rain and in the mud, and the more than 10,000 people who had remained under the rain for 3 or 4 hours watching all the other races waiting for MXGP, then when it was the moment to have the top riders out to race they didn’t want to race. This doesn’t show a lot of respect for the others who had worked hard and who had paid their tickets, I strongly believe that in life if somebody wants to be respected then they first have to show their respect toward others. For us, the riders are the stars, they are the ones who make everyone dream, but in the work, they are part of the job, and they need to respect all the other parties if they want to be respected.
I am even more disappointed because a lot of things have been said in the media and social media, and to try to justify their position those riders have added more allegations to the story, like IMR and FIM never listen to them, and they are not respected. I would like to know when have they asked for a meeting with IMR and/or FIM and they have not been received? When a rider has asked a question to an official, when have they been badly rejected without being listened to or without being able to discuss a matter?
Just to let you know, a while ago we had a system in place where the top riders of MX2 and MXGP would meet on the Friday afternoon and Saturday after the qualifying races with the Youthstream (at that time it was still Youthstream) and FIM sporting directors to discuss the track, and this went on for some months but slowly no riders came anymore, so the Youthstream and FIM sporting directors stayed there for 30 minutes waiting in case a rider came but nobody turned up, so after a while this stopped. We strongly believe in the importance of dialogue, and we believe the riders’ input can be of value, so clearly, we are very open to try again with the riders’ meetings if that is their wish, and of course we would appreciate it if they would come to these meetings.
Quite frankly, if their true issue is to be able to talk, this was and will be no problem at all because we are happy to discuss with them, in fact we encourage dialogue, we will listen to them and when they have good ideas we are more than happy to go in their direction, and when their ideas are not good for the whole Championship we will tell them that we don’t agree and why. But what is unacceptable is the way, the place, the time and their arguments they used, because if they have concerns about the track, the starting grid in front of all the media and fans is not the right place or time, and using their arguments about the track being dangerous were not founded because all the races that went ahead proved this. We love all our riders, they are the heart and soul of our Championships, we don’t want them to get hurt, over the years we have worked on bringing more and more safety to our events in terms of obstacles, slowing down the track speed, track preparation and maintenance, protection around the track, the displacement of dangerous objects such as trees and rocks, effective marshalls, better medical services just to name a few. We are partners in the same game, we shouldn’t be acting against one another but working together to find solutions.
MXLarge: Obviously you have spoken to David (Luongo) about the situation. What was his opinion on what happened, and did he feel there was any way to resolve it with the riders?
Luongo: For sure, we were in constant contact, and it was clear from our side and from FIM’s side that there were some riders that didn’t want to start the qualifying race. Some of the riders involved in the Saturday’s issues were interviewed on Sunday after the races and they said they didn’t refuse to start but that they asked for some work to be done on the starting straight. These two things are very different, because if they had asked for some work to be done for sure we would have said yes and we would have done it but refusing to start is a completely different story. Anyway, all this is a very good lesson for everyone so we can avoid this happening in the future.
MXLarge: We saw the big crash in the opening MXGP moto, which seemed to come from riders on the outside trying to cut across to the inside, which causes a lot of riders going down. What did you think when you saw this happen?
Luongo: Clearly when top riders are on the worst position of the starting grid the start evidently becomes more complicated because strong riders are pushing to the interior and the situation automatically becomes complex, everyone knows the start of a Motocross race is always full of action and a little mistake of one can cause entanglement for many, so when there is a change in the ‘normal’ line-up of the riders it will certainly create some confusion.
MXLarge: I saw on social media riders like Stefan Everts, Marnicq Bervoets and some of the riders who raced the qualifier were disappointed in the actions of the riders who didn’t race. Some felt the crowd were left empty handed and others felt the conditions were actually not that bad.
Luongo: Not only Stefan and Marniqu, but we also received calls and messages from many current stars and stars from the past who were very disappointed with the action from these riders to not take part in the qualifying race. But now it’s done, we all must take the lessons and move forward keeping the well-being of the Championship in mind for everyone’s benefit.
MXlarge: We have had this situation in the past of course, with problems with dust in Mexico from memory and also the situation in Sun City back 20 years ago, when the riders didn't race (I can't even remember what that was for). Motocross is dangerous and bikes seem to be getting faster and faster. I know Infront try and slow a lot of the tracks down to prevent hi-speed injuries and track preparation is a lot better than back in the 1970s or 1980s. A lot of this year’s injuries have come from practice crashes, or races outside MXGP, including Herlings and Febvre. What are the main goals of Infront in rider safety and looking forward where can we prevent injuries or rider concern?
Luongo: You know that in general motorsports have some level of danger, and all together we must try to limit that danger to the minimum. Manufacturers are producing bikes with electronics that make them much safer compared to years ago. FIM and we have continued to improve tracks and medical services on and off the tracks and there are great improvements compared to the past. We have to continue to always make things better. The Medical Mobile Clinic (which is fully financed by IMR) is like a little hospital on-site with the possibility to make scans, X-rays, ultrasounds, etc. FIM is working hard with the local medical staff to have it better and better. We have all done a lot, but we still need to continue to improve. The main problem are the practise tracks and local races where the maintenance of the racetracks, the medical system and the Marshalls around the track are in most cases extremely poor compared to MXGP, or sometimes these safety measures are not even in place, but this is the choice of the riders and teams where they want to go.
MXLarge: We understand some of the riders don't like the Saturday qualification, but of course the fans enjoy them. If I watch the triple crown in AMA supercross, with three main events, I love that a lot more than seeing the guys race just one main event and as a fan, I prefer to see them race as often as possible. Are there any possibilities for a change in the format, or are you satisfied that it is the best formula for success of our riders and the best for the crowds?
Luongo: This was not the issue for the riders who didn’t want to start on Saturday in Ernée, but in answer to your question about the importance of Saturdays’ qualifying races, you know already last year for the first time F1 (which is by far the biggest motorsport in the world), took an idea from us by making 3 events with the qualifying race on Saturday because they need more spectators and more attraction for the Saturday, which is exactly what our local organisers need. F1 repeated this again this year with the idea to have more in the future. This is very important to attract spectators for the Saturday, and Saturday at Ernée was proof exactly of what I am saying, there were many spectators enjoying an entire weekend of racing, staying on-site which is crucial for all of the World Championship’s local organisers. This also helps the European Championship riders to race in front of a lot of spectators, because once the spectators are there for the whole programme they enjoy the European Championship racing too, because as you see they are fantastic races, and this will help these young riders to evolve into MXGP, this system is already proven to work very well. Practically all the top riders in MXGP today come from the EMX125 and EMX250 European Championships, but sadly some have maybe forgotten those years.
MXLarge: It has been a tough couple of years, and I know that Infront have really put the paddock first in continuing to run races, despite heavy loss financially. Do you feel as though people forget quickly and are you disappointed with this?
Luongo: Concerning the actual situation, thank goodness it’s better than the last 2 years, but it is still very complicated. Over the last 2 years to save the Championships, and most importantly to save the salaries of all those involved in our Championships including the riders, we have worked like crazy to run the 2020 and 2021 Championships over a short and very compact period wherever we found possibilities between the various waves of the pandemic, and we managed to produce very credible Championships with 18 event in 2020 and 19 events in 2021.
This was extremely heavy for us, because on one side there was not the income and on top of that we had to practically assume all the costs not only for our own normal working costs, but also for the costs of the local organisers because without spectators it was impossible for them to run the events, and it’s very simple: without local organisers there would be no events, and with no events there would be no Championships and without Championships there would be no salaries for anyone.
I am extremely proud and happy about the work we have done and for the support of the local organisers, local Federations and FIM, and I am also grateful to Infront for giving us the trust to be able to do our work and now we need some good years ahead of us to slowly recover this. In addition, the pandemic which is still active in some countries (we had to cancel the 2022 MXGP of China because it’s still closed) is causing big inflation of between 6% to 8% all around the world and we are seeing a huge increase in price for all the energy and raw material which in turn are causing the costs of travel and logistics to skyrocket, for example the freight for the overseas events compared to 2019 has doubled, also all the transportation by land is also much more expensive, as are many services and goods.
On top of all this, for 3 months there is the war in Ukraine and the sanctions from Occident to Russia (resulting in the cancellation of the MXGP of Russia) causing prices to grow, instability on the market and making the future very uncertain. So, I believe these are the real problems which need to be resolved, and need to be resolved considering (as I said before) all the stakeholders because in a situation like this teams, organizers, promoters, risk to not be able to survive, and we are working very hard to find solutions because our goal remains to continue to improve the Championships, and to be a true World Championship means to race in the whole world and not to cut costs and have 6 races between BENELUX, France, Italy and Germany. We need to be creative, we need to stick together, but what we need most (and we will) is to find solutions.
Do you understand? This is what disappointed our and the FIM staff the most, because after 2 very tough years with all we have done to keep these Championships alive at a high level, and with all the problems that we are still having to face to keep these Championships healthy it is frustrating that some riders say that we don’t talk with them and we don’t listen to them. Everyone in the paddock can come talk with our managers and directors and with FIM managers and directors, but if nobody comes to talk, we think all is OK…. And really, we are more than happy to listen to the riders about the safety on the track and how to improve the track, when they come with constructive ideas which are good for everyone, and also when they are all in accordance, because on many occasions there are riders who push to have the track good for themself and at the end of the day we would need to make 30 different tracks.
MXLarge: Are there possible penalties in the future if this happens again or is it more important to get together and make solutions for the betterment of the sport?
Luongo: The next step is to open dialogue. We believe more in dialogue and partnership than penalties. If everyone remains in good will then it will be beneficial for everyone. We have taken experience and make sure all parties realise our door is always open to dialogue, but clearly a situation like this will be unacceptable in the future.
MXLarge: Obviously the riders make the show, and they deserve respect for that. Do you feel there was anything Infront could have done to make the situation better, or was it totally on the riders making an error in judgement? Some mentioned the start straight was too muddy and could have been cleaned up a little.
Luongo: I really don’t think this is a big issue, it has been built up, but it is obviously in the interest of everyone to resolve this problem. For sure we will have a very open discussion with the riders who feel they are not listened to, and as always, we will find a solution, and we will also explain to them our vision. The true issues where we all have to concentrate 100% of all our efforts and energy is to go on over this difficult moment in history and find a way to continue to grow and continue to have great Motocross European and World Championships.
MXLarge: Do you think a rider’s union might be a good idea, where a handful of riders have regular meetings with Infront about their concerns, rather than a rushed decision like we had on the weekend. Some of the riders who didn't race mentioned their concerned for not being listened to. What is your opinion in this?
Luongo: I think I covered this question in my reply above, and for sure we are open to meetings with a group of riders at every race (as were in place years ago), but it would be good if riders attend these meetings otherwise, they will end up disappearing again. As I have also already said, I really believe dialogue and respect is important, and with this if there are problems they will be resolved. But again, the real dilemma is how to manage all together the uncertainty of the coming years and we will succeed only if we stick together.
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