Paolo Simoncelli never holds back, and the Le Mans weekend brought no exceptions, the Italian team boss always very clear and candid.

Simoncelli: "Fellon, a senseless race"

The Sic58 Squadra Corse team boss has scolded his Moto3 riders, particularly Lorenzo Fellon, who Simoncelli thinks ran a “senseless race” in France.

“First things first… On Friday Fellon said that the bike ‘is crap, it won’t go!’, words he used to justify his less than inspired performance on the bike (or inability)”, writes Paolo in his post-race blog. Harsh words, which are followed up with more: “On Saturday though ‘the bike was amazing’, to our puzzlement. But mathematics is not an opinion and even if we change the order in which we multiply numbers, the result does not change, this is what commutative property teaches us. On Sunday he finished 23rd.”

Simoncelli doubles down: “On Sunday he ran a senseless race – after a decent start, he let everyone pass him. Fellon’s been with us for two seasons but despite our advice and support, I’m yet to see him make a pass”.

Rossi and the smartphone

Simoncelli also criticises Riccardo Rossi: “He’s a guy with the right numbers, he knows that the bike needs to be modified to improve it. He understands, and the same can’t be said of all riders, but he needs to be able to focus already on Friday. This is the lifestyle of youngsters today, always on their phones, their life clouded by social media, and this has me thinking that he’s distracted and not on the ball. Grana (his crew chief) and I are considering confiscating it over the race weekend”.

Rossi failed to score points at Le Mans due to a crash: “He needs to get back in the race even more aggressive than before, you can’t close the throttle and make a cautious start. A crash can’t define your entire day”, remarks Simoncelli.

Fellon and Rossi are in for a tough time in the run up to Mugello, where they will both be tasked with making up for their recent lacklustre performances.

Translated by Heather Watson

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