Febvre clash with FIM about Benistant's incident

It wasn’t a good weekend. Febvre is right

I saw Benistant on the floor and was really surprised they didn't stop the race, it looked like he was unconscious... Riders safety should be at the forefront and it seemed like it should have been stopped to me.

Yea that’s terrible. 

Were these said between motos & then 2nd moto was red flagged? Or was this said after both motos 

Thibault injured first lap moto 1

Redflag was after 2nd moto startcrasch

Yeah I watched the motos I’m wondering when these statements were made. 

Wondering if the statements were a reason why the red flagged moto 2 ? 

Watching him on the ground as lap after lap the riders went past, I was appalled at no red flag.

Maybe I'm wrong, but from what we saw, I don't feel red flagging would have changed anything to Benistant's condition or medical evacuation... Febvre was probably emotional since the news seem pretty bad. 

He already has a tendency to get pretty vocal for way less important matters.

Oh so another racer has never lost control and crashed into another downed rider? What if the downed rider had a broken back but not paralyzed yet, and someone lands on him and creates a worse issue?

As soon as the medical people saw he had lack of feeling in his legs and couldn't move the red flag should have been out.

I was thinking it was going to be one of those moments where the TV panned the other way, which they pretty much did, no question it should of been red flagged

Also, that first bend from the start needs be addressed

Fk me, that track looked sketchy, I wouldn't even  like to walk it, let alone ride it. 

He was laying in the track, severely injured. For the safety of the medic crew and rider, clear cut red flag situation.

Its one mistake away, either rider fumbles into him and his life is over. And I have a hard time accepting medics can do their best work wiht loud bikes and dust around them. I will 10 out of 10 times stop the race at that time, specially 2 laps +.

Yeah, lots of things that didn't happen could have happened, that's for sure. 

Pressconference after the race

You may be right. 

Still, I'm always amazed at how many people in here know better that the people in charge. Race directing, filming, editing, first aid, bike setting. Such a bottomless pool of knowledge about everything, really.

Anyways. Hope Benistant's surgery has positive results and he gets better.
 

If Roman was so concerned about what was happening why didn't he stop on the leed up to the incident area and lay his bike down and flag the riders down. I can guarantee they would have stopped racing and forced a red flag.

Any update on Benistant? Did he regain feeling?

He has a job in any moto and is not a flagger position, they have other people for that. His job is obvious. Your point is kind of foolish.

I agree. Unless the race delayed his evacuation I don't see the issue. He was attended to quickly and never looked in danger. 

Even if it is a "low level national" that should not change any procedure in such incidents.

"Never looked in danger" ?

You should be ashamed to write that...

You should head over to Non-moto if you want to meet experts. 

He was laying on the other side of a blind jump. With bikes going right past him the medical crew should be 100% focussed on the rider and not distracted by the fear of getting landed on.  Plus with loud 450s going right past the incident and track crew screaming at the riders to slow down, clear audible communication between between injured rider and medic can be really important.

Even from a racing point of view, riders having to slow down every lap for 5 laps isn't what anyone wants. 

It was in the post race press conference.

He wasn't happy that nobody from FIM showed up at their own press conference either.

Fast forward to about 5 minutes 40 seconds.

A few disgusting comments in here. I’ll try to give my thoughts as objectively as possible, which is hard to do knowing the extent of Benistant his injuries. The race should have been red flagged immediately. He was knocked out (which already is a reason to raise the red flag as he was laying on the track) and when he woke up couldn’t feel his legs. I appreciate Febvre and Coenen speaking up about these issues and really hope the FIM/MXGP learns from this situation. 

I’d rather have a red flag situation too soon (which maybe was the case at the first start of moto 2) instead of too late. Would it limit his extent of injuries with the race going on like what happened yesterday? I have no idea, but the medics should be able to give him the medical assistance needed without being worried about 30+ riders passing by constantly. They should be able to communicate with the rider and each other and focus on their job. 

MXGP wants to grow the sport, which they do in certain areas for sure, but in other cases there is a lot of room to improve. Look at the safety of F1 and MotoGP the past 15 years and watch how situations like yesterday are handled in MXGP. It is still the same as how they handled big accidents back then. Red flag situations and track safety still have a lot of room for improvement

I watched Steve Ramon his career ending crash during qualifying in Lommel 2011, where he was paralyzed for a few days and had to re-learn movement and life. The exact same thing happened as yesterday. The race kept going and crowd got crazy because the medical team could barely help him properly. Joel Smets had to climb over a fence to pick up his bike and move it in front of him to have him covered for riders coming over. 

Three years ago, Jago Geerts crashed spectacularly at the gnarly downhill in France (Villars Sous Ecot). I know that MXGP tracks are gnarly and dangerous, but during the two races PRIOR to the MX2 race we already witnessed 10+ crashes due to the crazy amount of ruts and kickers at that downhill. The fact that none of these riders had career ending injuries is still a wonder to me. If you have that many crashes in a particular session then you need to act quickly and do track prep immediately after the race. 

Moments like this really make me realize how brutal this sport can be. Benistant is the definition of a true sportsman and besides being known as one of France brightest talents, a true athlethe dedicated to his craft. I remember Hutten Metaal Yamaha, Marc de Reuver and a few others mentioning how dedicated he is to improve his body to perform at the highest level possible. That is why he became a EMX125 and EMX250 champion, won a few GP’s and already had a few top 10 moto’s in his rookie MXGP season. Fingers crossed for a positive surgery and a full recovery🙏 

Its good that Febvre says this but nothing will change by just saying this. Two years ago van doninck didnt get operated on in Argentina untill a teamowner paid thousands in cash. 

The champs should sit together and make a list of safety demands. And simply dont ride untill they get confirmation that the demands are met. And the moment they are at a track where stuff is not up to par simply dont ride first free practice untill its taken care off.

Febvre, Herlings, Gajser are in a point in their career where Infront cant hurt them. Getting life changing injuries due to bad safety conditions can. They have the power to demamd changes if they stick together.

The FIM doesn't care about the riders? You don't say? A farmer cares more about his chickens than the AMA and FIM cares about riders.

Sadly nothing will get done until team owners and riders unite and demand change. Its all about the money FIM-loungos dont give a shit about their safety or concerns. Years come and go and nothing changes.

The official mxgp highlights sweep it almost completely under the rug as well.  Almost like it never happened.  👎

WTF! Nobody from the FIM was there???  🤷🏼‍♂️ Is that really true?

That’s because they are the highlights straight after the race that are glued together so no one really knew how bad Benistant was at that point. I’m not sure what you expect Malin to actually say?