During the grand prix in Jerez on Sunday, Zarco from LCR Honda and Espargaro from Aprilia were racing near the back of the pack when they crashed into each other on lap 10 at Turn 5.
The race officials looked into what happened, but after talking with both riders, they didn’t take any further action.
But Zarco thinks that Freddie Spencer, who has been in charge of the officials since 2019, isn’t the right person for the job.
Zarco said, “He wanted for me to complain about Aleix. I said ‘I will not complain’ but I said to him he is not good for this job because he doesn’t take the right decision in the right moments.”
He also said that when he talked to Spencer, it felt like Spencer was waiting for him to decide what to do. Zarco thinks Spencer isn’t making the right choices.
Zarco thinks it’s important for riders to have a say in who makes the decisions. He believes that the crash between him and Espargaro could have been avoided if the officials made better decisions.
Espargaro, on the other hand, says he crashed because he locked the front wheel of his bike. He was unhappy with how Zarco was racing and didn’t want to crash into him.
“I was very unhappy because I said to Johann, we are in P14, he hit me three or four times, you need to have more respect,” Espargaro said.
He tried to avoid hitting Zarco by locking his front wheel, but he ended up crashing anyway. He thinks that the officials should have done more to prevent incidents like this from happening.
Last year, riders complained about how penalties were given out inconsistently. Some riders, like Cal Crutchlow, have also spoken out against the job Spencer is doing since 2019.
