The never ending Italian telenovela regarding the bubbles on Monza circuit that may have been the cause of several crashes during that polemic World Superbike weekend in May, is still occupying space in major sports newspapers in the country.
The soon-to-be ex technical director of the Monza circuit, Giorgio Beghella Bartoli (who was one of three people caught up in the wiretap conversation) who has been accused along with Enrico Ferrari of not previously reporting that there were issues with the track surface that were probably due to drainage defect.
Beghella Bartoli has no intention of keeping quiet after the scandal and gave his side of the story to the usual Gazzetta dello Sport.
“Why should I have made it public? Look, there was no safety issues.
Do you know that one year for a World Superbike round we resurfaced the Prima Variante for three straight nights because it wasn’t good? If there was any danger, I would be the first to report it, rider safety has always been the priority.
” He then went on to clarify the bubbles issue one and for all, “Fifty? There were two on Thursday and Friday, and none on Saturday and Sunday, and they appeared only in the evening when the temperatures were lower.
It’s possible that the number is increased when the temperature went up, but no one crashed in the Superbike race due to the bubbles.
The FIM inspectors were there every day inspecting the track and didn’t noticed anything, they couldn’t have been idiots, isn’t that right? Do you know how much the asphalt rose in the area of the bubbles? Do you know how high these bubble were? Two millimeters, which is the limit allowed by the FIA regulations and for the FIM it’s four.
“Beghella Bartoli is ready to go to court against those people who have publically attacked him and is mainly pointing the finger at the President of the SIAS, Paul Guaitamacchi, “His position has been vacillating for some time and then did everything possible to embarrass Valli and the AC Milan, posing as a knight in shining armour that is being dismissed because he wants clean up the situation, I’ll take him to court, ask damages from him and the SIAS.
“ The FIM has suspended Monza’s track homologation pending resurfacing that begins today.