JAVIER SÁNCHEZ
@javisanchez
Montmeló
Updated on Sunday, 6June2021-01: 41
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"I am totally against it. With this system we go faster and faster, we have less time to brake and the loopholes of the circuits are too small for us. That is the main reason why I am against: for safety. But also now With the 'trigger' as I say, it is impossible to overtake on the straights and the riders are more demanding ", analyzed
Marc Márquez
after discovering that the MotoGP World Championship that he knew no longer exists.
Now it is another.
An invention, a brilliant invention, the so-called
holeshot
, has raised top speed to unimaginable limits, has changed the way some riders and has even turned the odds: now the Ducati is the best bike in the championship.
But what is the
holeshot
?
Paolo Bonora
, one of the people in charge of Aprilia,
explains it
: "The
holeshot
is a system that improves acceleration by lowering the bike's center of gravity. When a bike gets up from the front, that is, when it does a wheelie, it loses a lot. time and with the
holeshot we
get the front wheel to stay on the asphalt practically all the time. If it doesn't get up, the bike can develop its full power under acceleration and therefore go much faster. "
In practice, the
holeshot
is a relatively simple hydraulic mechanism reminiscent of the dropper post that mountain bikers have used for years.
When you press a button on the handlebar and stop abruptly, the motorcycle descends in front and when you press another button, thanks to the weight of the rider, it descends behind.
At such a low altitude, without barely getting off the ground, the bikes soar until they reach, for example, a new top speed record: the 362.4 km / h that
Johann Zarco
recorded
this year in Qatar.
Ducati's 'trick'
When it was created by Ducati engineers in 2018, the system was intended to be used only for exits, but last year the Italian brand perfected it to be able to use it whenever possible, in all long accelerations, and its rivals took note . As always happens, copies soon appeared. Today Honda, KTM, Aprilia, Yamaha and Suzuki already have their own
holeshots
, but nobody works like their inventors.
Thanks to ingenuity and other advances in aerodynamics, Ducati now has
Johann Zarco, Francesco Bagnaia
and
Jack Miller
placed second, third and fourth in the World Championship and it seems that only the leader,
Fabio Quartararo
of Yamaha, is a little above. The Italian brand will fight for victory with him this Sunday in Montmeló (1:00 p.m., DAZN) and we'll see what happens in the remainder of the championship.
Because, despite Márquez's complaints, the
holeshot
will not be banned, nor will its use even be limited.
Despite the fact that in Jerez, several riders, including Márquez himself, collided with the protections;
despite the fact that injuries to the forearms have multiplied, as evidenced by Quartararo;
the organization of the World Cup does not contemplate regulating the system.
According to the CEO of Dorna,
Carmelo Ezpeleta
, "all manufacturers" should agree to do so, something that did not happen when the ailerons were restricted, for example.
As indicated by one of the teams involved, the championship, which has barely changed its regulations for years, is interested in innovation so that there are changes among the leading drivers.
"Right now it is an important system and, for me, it is not dangerous. Even when I lay down from the corner, I put it on and I don't feel anything. In fact I always tell my mechanics that I want the bike to go lower and lower, but now it doesn't go lower. I think it can be overtaken and it is true that we are going faster and faster, but the brakes are also better, the suspensions are better, the tires are better ... If I go 340 km / h, I want to run more "
Maverick Viñales
responded
to Márquez's criticisms and, somehow, settled the debate.
The
holeshot
is here to stay, the MotoGP World Championship is another.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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