P102
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
"W
ell," said the millen-
nial I was talking
to. "It's better than
nothing."
No, I replied. It's worse.
We were discussing that reli-
able topic for dissent between
curmudgeons like me and every-
one else in the world: virtual re-
ality versus real life. In particular,
Dorna's febrile attempt to keep
the so-called "MotoGP fam-
ily" around the table by staging
virtual grand prix events at virtual
tracks—Jerez, a couple of real
weekends ago, and now another
one at Misano. Just to include
another layer of dullness, this lat-
est exercise in trivialization adds
MotoE to the three classes.
Even under lockdown, it
should be possible to find some-
thing more interesting to do.
Both the participants, at home
on their sofas, as well as race
fans.
NASCAR, my "better-than-
nothing" correspondent said,
had also been engaged in
lockdown virtualizing; likewise,
with real drivers piloting avatars
of themselves and their cars…
and in one race, one of the driv-
ers had thrown a hissy fit and
stormed off.
Whereupon his sponsors with-
drew their support!
What?
When virtual nonsense takes
a controlling hand in the real
world, something has gone
badly wrong.
Is it just me that thinks so?
Am I out of step with the rest
of the racing world?
Again!
Happily, MotoGP's stay-home
play-play not-racing has yielded
no such consequences. Yet. No-
body's been sacked, drug-tested
or otherwise inconvenienced.
We've had a couple of highly
unlikely winners in the warm-up
rounds (Alex Marquez, I seem to
recall, first time, and then Pecco
Bagnaia (and now Alex Marquez
again), but I might be wrong,
because I really wasn't paying
too much attention. It might have
been Mike Hailwood who won.
Or possibly Elvis Presley.
Then the "proper" three-class
extravaganza at not-Jerez, and
this time Vinales was victorious.
My respect for Rossi soared
when I heard he had declined to
take part, ceding his factory Ya-
maha slot to Maverick. Rossi is
clearly a man who understands
WHEN
NOTHING
IS BETTER
THAN
NOTHING