Rider radios tried again in Aragon MotoGP test

A fascinating development during the Monday test day at Aragon was the reappearance of the rider radio devices that were being tested by MotoGP to improve safety communication to riders.

So far, it has been known that several competitors tested it, including Alex Marquez, Brad Binder, Lorenzo Savadori and Johann Zarco.

Savadori, who had tested the device previously, was relatively positive about the experience.

“For the first time race direction spoke with me, I listened well to the race direction in the box,” said Savadori. “During the [time] when I used it on the bike, I listened but it’s not super clear at the moment – but every time [we run it], we improve the feeling.”

The device works through bone conduction, but Savadori says that it is not uncomfortable.

“It touches the bone, yes,” confirmed Savadori. “But last year or the year before, it was smaller, the chat pad. Now they’re bigger and better.

“The problem is not uncomfortable, the problem is – and it’s not simple – when you are on the straight at high speed. The helmet moves a bit so it’s not simple, sometimes you don’t listen because the pad is a bit up or a bit down.”

There is uncertainty regarding how the riders and teams will adapt to the new device, however Savadori does not reckon it’ll be a massive problem.

“At the moment, I think if you have something new, you need to adapt everybody to it because it is not difficult,” he said. “If your crew chief connects and disconnects it before removing the helmet, it’s not a real problem.”

When Marquez gave the device a try, he wasn’t entirely sure about its effectiveness.

“It is the first time that I have tried it,” he said. “I already put it in a good place at Silverstone, but here I try it on track. It’s not the most real radio, it’s not like somebody from the box is speaking to you, but it was important to try it.

“It is not easy to understand at many points what they’re talking [about] or to hear very clearly, but it was the first thing to try [today in testing], because next year it looks like [it will be] mandatory for safety and I was hoping to try it. I did one run and it was good.”

One point that Marquez did make was the need to improve communication during push laps as it wasn’t always clear under faster running.

“We need to understand,” said Marquez. “Because honestly speaking, in the beginning, I was listening to the message, but later on I tried to push on that run, and when I was doing 1m46s [lap time], I was not hearing [the message because] imagine you are really focused.

“But it is true that it is like a radio, maybe if they send you just one message, you listen. When it’s always, there you stop listening.”