Safety has become the priority in MotoGP and now Dorna is thinking of making air bag leathers for all riders and racing bikes have some sort off front brake lever protection made mandatory by 2012.
Apparently Dorna has already instated a special commission that is in talks with both Dainese and Alpinestars, top motorcycle apparel leaders, who supply the majority of GP riders and have been experimenting on track for the last couple of years with some excellent results (just ask Valentino Rossi and Marco Simoncelli about their Dainese suits) with their relative D-Air Technology and Electronic Airbag Technology.
While front brake protections have been talked about for years, especially after the 2006 Barcelona GP, when Sete Gibernau accidently clipped Loris Capirossi’s front brake and sent off a chain reaction of horrific crashes.
Several teams have tried to adopt some sort of lever protection (this photo shows what was on Randy de Puniet’s RC212V when he was racing for LCR Honda) but many riders are still reluctant to use anything, as they think their hand could remain trapped when they crash out and suffer a more severe injury, so there is talk of making a bigger and more covering front fairing.