Ride-Height Device Debate Reopened
T
he retirements of Maverick
Vinales and Alex Marquez at
the German MotoGP due to their
ride-height devices malfunction-
ing reopened the debate on
whether they should really form a
part of a MotoGP machine.
Despite Aprilia's device being
among the more advanced on
the grid, Aleix Espargaro was
fully in favor of banning them. "I
will ban it tomorrow, even if my
one works very good and I like it.
But if I was the one who decides,
from Assen and you could not
use it anymore."
Why? "Yes, the bike acceler-
ates better, but if everybody
removed them, the bikes would
accelerate the same at the same
level for everyone. I think we'd
have more overtakes because we
will make more wheelie and more
mistakes in acceleration."
When Vinales' device failed dur-
ing his best Aprilia performance
to date, he feared he had suffered
a puncture. "I was 0.1 from Aleix,
going to attack and then I start to
feel the bike a little bit more down
and start to have chatter and I
said, 'I don't understand.' But then
all of a sudden, boom, down! I felt
my foot on the ground. I thought
I have a flat tire, because I nearly
high-side, but then [looked] and
the tire was perfect so I said, 'it's
the rear device.'"
Neil Morrison
IN
THE
WIND
P60
Maverick Vinales was
running well until
his rear ride-height
device cried enough.
