Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez have the same opinion regarding the decision of Dorna Sports and the FIM to change the rules for the age limit for young drivers to have a career in Moto2 and Moto3. The FIM, as the body that handles world motorcycle racing, has decided to increase the minimum age limit for riders in the Moto2 and Moto3 classes from 16 years to 18 years. The FIM and Dorna Sports will also reduce the number of contestants in the junior racing event.
The safety factor is the main reason for the FIM and Dorna Sports to implement changes to the driver’s age limit rule. The tragedy of the death of three young drivers in 2021 became the basis for the FIM to make new regulations to regulate driver safety.
According to Valentino Rossi, the basic problem that needs to be addressed to regulate rider safety is racing ethics rather than their age. “For sure it will be better for safety, but I don’t know if it will fix all the problems,” Rossi said, quoted from Motorsport. “I think it’s more important that the drivers have good manners when they are on the track than it’s a matter of age. So they have to follow the rules of Race Direction more precisely and Race Direction are also watching the match more strictly. The age move towards 18 is a pretty big step. Imagine, maybe I started racing at the age of 17 in the world championship which was 25 years ago or 26 years ago. So, 18 is quite high,” said Rossi.
The same thing was also expressed by Marc Marquez, who is Valentino Rossi’s rival in MotoGP. Marc Marquez supports the FIM’s move to renew the world championship rules even though he started racing at the age of 15. “For me, this is a good change after what happened this year,” said Marc Marquez.
“It’s time to change something. It’s true maybe I don’t deserve to say this because I came to the world championship at 15 years old, I moved to MotoGP at 20 years old, I was one of the youngest. But it’s true that now there’s a stereotype that if you’re 20 years old and you’re not in MotoGP, you’re not a good rider. But that’s not the case. Sometimes there are some riders who need more time than others,” said Marquez.
Meanwhile, Francesco Bagnaia considers the change in the age limit of riders in Moto2 and Moto3, a little excessive. “I saw that they moved the age limit from 16 to 18 and there are only 32 riders per category,” said Bagnaia. “I think two more years is a bit too much because when you’re young, 16 years I think that’s good. It’s okay if you have to have more maturity than the riders, but I don’t think it’s changed too much from 16 to 18. I think 16 is good and 18 is a bit too much,” Bagnaia added.
