“Safety and fairness” - Spencer outlines new direction for stewarding in MotoGP

The level of stewarding in both MotoGP and WorldSBK has been much-maligned due to inconsistent penalties being handed down.

In MotoGP, Spencer is the chief steward which has led to him coming under heavy criticism from riders in particular. 

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Unsure what is a penalty and what is fair racing, MotoGP riders have at times been more confused than ever during recent races.

But after Le Mans, Spencer believes the confusion should dissipate: "We have the greatest motorsport in the world, in my opinion, and it’s the greatest show, and it’s also the best riders and the best opportunities,” Spencer told MotoAmerica’s official podcast.

"And we always want to see them perform and be able to do their job. Over the past few years, from the riders’ side, from the safety commission side, when the MotoGP riders meet every Friday, there's been a push about contact. What is incidental, what’s racing, what’s too much?

"It got to a point a few races ago where it was just too much. Not too much contact, but it’s where there shouldn’t be any involvement, where it should be race incidents.

"We all agree with that, and if it’s too much, if it’s race-affecting, then there will be changes of position, that’s the first course of action, as it should be. Then we’ll move forward from that.

"The riders understand that, and as much as anything, what you see today in this world and in our sport, and what a lot of people need to understand, is that it’s so competitive and so difficult. There’s a lot of emotion from the riders’ standpoint, and I understand that.

"From our side, it’s safety and fairness, but we want the riders to be able to race and that’s what we saw in France."

When riders feel as though they’ve been harshly treated, Spencer is the man who often feels the wrath of those individuals.

Team managers have also been critical of the American and the entire stewarding team, as we saw in Jerez when Yamaha’s Lin Jarvis and Massimo Meregali were left even more confused following a meeting with Spencer, rather than before it.

But in a bid to provide more angles and therefore gather as much data as possible in order to correctly assess each incident, Spencer says that the current system is aimed at giving themselves as much opportunity to succeed as ever before. 

Spencer added: "Obviously, as part of the FIM MotoGP stewards panel I’ve been doing it since 2019,” he added, “and it’s the most challenging job, as you can imagine.

"Basically what has changed since I started is just the amount of personnel. A chairman has come in, but also the programme grew.

"We have over 90 cameras now, counting CCTV, that we can have access to. We have a race control suite, we can monitor anything from when the crashes happen, all of the times, be more accurate when they do shortcuts, or on track positioning, go off the track, track limits. If we give someone that they have to lose a certain amount of time [we can be more accurate].

"With the cameras, and with the personnel that I have, the goal has always been to increase our ability to analyse situations in short amounts of time. If we are going to give a change of position then give it in an appropriate amount of time, that lap if possible or less.

"From my side, our side, that’s what we’ve always worked towards.

"One thing that I know that people, and I told you I can’t talk about incidents, but one of the things that we’re always working towards is the balance of race incidents and incidents with contacts.

"And the last race was perfect – France was what we would like to see."