10 years. 10 years and yet it feels like yesterday. The accident. The horrific images on the racetrack. The images from the pit lane. The despair on Valentino Rossi’s face. Paolo Simoncelli who rushed to the scene of the accident. The silence after the accident, which was irrepressible.
All this comes back to my memory today. All that comes back every year. For 10 years. This 10/23 means something different to everyone. For me it is one of the hardest days. My relationship with MotoGP has changed since that day. MotoGP has also changed.
On that day the world stopped for me and only slowly started to pick up speed again. My relationship with the whole of motorsport was shaken. The images were too terrible. Very slowly it healed. My passion returned. MotoGP has also changed. I don’t want to say it has become safer, despite better track conditions and safety concepts. Recent accidents show us that if there is a crash in a field of riders, it can end badly. In this very case, it has not become noticeably safer. What has changed noticeably is the way it is transmitted. Distance is kept so that images like Marco Simoncelli’s can’t arise.
Could things have gone differently? Perhaps. Does this thought bring Simoncelli back to us? No. We can talk a lot about “could have,” “would have,” “if.” Because it is and remains a sad day. Only today it comes back to my mind: Marco died doing his sport. In the sport he loved, that we all love.
MotoGP has lost a great talent and above all a great personality. Marco Simoncelli inspired and touched many people with his way of racing and his personality. The number 58 is still visible on all race tracks and will remain so for a long time. Marco Simoncelli was and is unique. Let us remember him today.
Your Miss MotoGP