Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso have suggested riders making their MotoGP debuts as replacements should have a test on the bike beforehand to stop them going into a race weekend blind.
Numerous safety concerns were raised by Avintia taking on CEV Superstock 1000 rider Christophe Ponsson as Tito Rabat's replacement at Misano, despite never having ridden a MotoGP bike prior and a lacklustre career at world level.
Ponsson has been replaced by former Moto2 race winner and current World Superbike rider for this weekend's Aragon round, though this has proven controversial following a statement released by Ponsson earlier this week in which he slammed his “mafia-like” ousting.
While Aragon will be Torres' maiden MotoGP outing, Marquez believes the WSBK race winner has proven enough on the world stage to warrant being chosen by Avintis, though believes going forward replacement riders should have a test on the bike they will take over.
“It's a little bit the same like in Misano [with Ponsson], but Jordi is competing in the World Superbike Championship, so the experience is more,” Marquez said.
“So I think he will be faster, but it's always difficult to make a MotoGP debut in a race weekend, because you don't have the time, FP1 will be very hard for him.
“But minimum, that this is important, Jordi has experience of racing in one of the best championships in the world that is Superbikes.
“The only thing is the first time in MotoGP, all the riders prefer to have the opportunity in a test.
“But if you are a rider and you have a chance to ride a MotoGP, doesn't matter when. But the important thing is you have the chance, so maybe we have to manage something [to stop replacements debuting on a race weekend].”
Dovizioso echoed the Spaniard's comments: “I agree. We spoke in the Safety Commission, and one idea was to make a test before make a race if you never did a MotoGP because it's a completely different bike, and is also too difficult if you are a fast rider to manage all the different things.
“I think Torres is a bit of a different story than Misano for sure, because he have a different experience and I don't think it will be a big problem.
“But for sure I think we have to try to manage this situation; not to say 'you no or yes', but you need something before you have a chance to do something like that.”
While Ponsson made the 107 percent cut-off in practice to qualify for the race at Misano, making that cut-off more stringent has been discussed – though Marquez thinks adjusting this for each circuit would become too complicated.
“We were speaking about this 107%, make it a little bit lower,” he added.
“It's better to change in the way that me and Dovi [suggested], I think, say to make some test, because the 107%… Ok you can go lower, but you need to be flexible because sometimes in a rain condition, in a very long circuit, can be strange track conditions.
“So I think it's better to work in another way which is to have a previous test or something like this.”
