Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1164303
IN THE WIND P54 Alpinestars Releases Dovizioso-Quartararo Crash Data A lpinestars has published the data taken from the massive Andrea Dovizioso/Fabio Quartararo crash at turn one of the recent British MotoGP round at Silverstone. In case you haven't seen it, Quar- tararo had to abruptly shut the throttle on his Petronas-Sprinta Yamaha to avoid a sliding Alex Rins' Suzuki, and when he cracked the gas open once more, his traction control system did not kick in, sending the young Frenchman way over the highside. That was bad news for the ap- proaching Andrea Dovizioso on the factory Ducati, who plowed into the Frenchman's stricken Yamaha and was launched into orbit, coming down even harder than Quartararo. It looked bad, and it was, with Dovi not moving for a few minutes but eventually getting to his feet. He was later transferred to hospital for checks that included memory loss but was released from the hospital that night to fly back to Italy. Quartararo was likewise trans- ported to the hospital for prelimi- nary checks but was also released that day. Both riders were wearing Alpinestars Tech-Air airbag sys- tem in their leathers, and the Italian company has now made public the data recorded in the crash. Fabio Quartararo's crash lasted 4.7 seconds, with his airbag fully inflat- ing 60 milliseconds before he hit the tarmac. For Dovizioso, his crash lasted 4.8 seconds, but he tumbled much more and further than Quartararo due to the speed at which he hit the Yama- ha, as can be seen from the repeated pink line spikes in his graph. Dovi's suit inflated 150 millisec- onds before the first impact with the ground, but what's interesting is the airbag did not inflate when Dovi ini- tially slammed into the Yamaha. It was only when he was launched from the Ducati that the airbag inflated. The Alpinestars Tech-Air system has been in use for a decade now in MotoGP, and in that time, Alpinestars has continuously evolved the algo- rithm to recognize the type of crash that's happening before the rider hits the ground. That's why a rider who suffers a low-side crash at slow speed will sometimes not have their airbag inflated after they hit the ground, while a rider who suffers a highside, in the case of Quartararo but also Dovizioso, will have their airbag inflated before their initial impact with the ground. In any case, this was no doubt a monster crash that could have had dire consequences for both riders, and no doubt the airbag system played a massive role in reducing the injuries suffered by both Andrea Dovizioso and Fabio Quartararo. We have been wearing the A'stars Tech-Air airbag system for a few years now at Cycle News, and luckily we have not tested it in the wild, but we did test it Alpinestars' U.S. HQ a few years back, and you can view that video above. CN (Left) Fabio Quartararo's crash was violent but shorter than Dovi's. (Right) Check out the initial impact (in blue) of Dovi's crash, over 35 G's!