Riders Preferred Membership
Shop by Vehicle
Track Order
Contact Us
What's an appropriate penalty if a racer intentionally swipes a competitor's front brake lever during a race?
That's the subject of much discussion after yesterday's Moto2 race at the San Marino Grand Prix. Italian rider Romano Fenati was black-flagged and disqualified from the race after he reached out and swiped at Stefano Manzi's front brake lever as the two hurtled down the straight. Watch the video in this MotoGP tweet to see what happened.
FIM MotoGP Stewards 📋
— MotoGP™🇸🇲🏁 (@MotoGP) September 9, 2018
Black flag Romano Fenati for irresponsible riding 🏴#Moto2 #SanMarinoGP pic.twitter.com/sTqv6nhZer
Race Direction disqualified Fenati from the race and banned him from the next two races. Manzi was apparently not totally innocent, either. Based on the earlier incident that led to Fenati's retaliation, Manzi was given a six-spot penalty on the grid for the next race.
Fenati's team said it "disassociates itself from what happened today." In a statement, the team said, "We agree. It's unforgivable."
Aside from ethical and sporting considerations, Fenati's actions may also turn out to be quite impolitic. Manzi rides for Forward Racing. Forward Racing is the team that will be running MV Agusta's Moto2 effort in 2019. The team recently signed Fenati to a contract for 2019 to ride the MV Agusta. Now, there are unconfirmed reports that MV Agusta is considering revoking his contract.
Fenati's temper has gotten him in trouble before. He was kicked off Valentino Rossi's VR46 team two years ago.
Not everyone agreed with Race Direction's penalty of a two-race ban. MotoGP rider Cal Crutchlow said Fenati "should never race a motorcycle again." Veteran racing reporter Mat Oxley first tweeted that Fenati should be banned for several races and "needs to work on his anger-management issues, for the sake of everyone." Then Oxley reassessed his position.
Changed my mind on Fenati. He should be banned for life from this championship. Up to the FIM if it bans him from all racing. When he loses his cool he fully loses control of himself. Someone like that shouldn’t be allowed on a racetrack.
— Mat Oxley (@matoxley) September 9, 2018
The Fenati penalty brings to mind a well known case in which then World Superbike rider Nicolo Canepa was accused of smacking the brake lever of another rider at a track day, causing the other rider to crash.
What do you think? What penalty should Fenati have been given? Is two races enough?
Update: It's now official that Fenati's actions cost him his current and future jobs. His current team dropped him and MV Agusta has now officially confirmed he will not ride for them next year, as planned. The company issued a statement saying Fenati's contract was terminated and quoting company President Giovanni Castiglioni.
"In all my years of watching sport, I have never seen behaviour as dangerous as this. A rider who can act like this can never represent the values of our company for our brand. For this reason, we do not want him to be the rider with which MV Agusta makes its return to the World Championship."
