MotoGP, what bearing does social media have on the riders?

Almost everyone has at least one social media profile, whether Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, or the more modern Twich and Tik Tok. The virtual world essentially goes hand in hand with the real world and provides an escape from daily life, although this can be a good or bad thing depending on how it’s used. Almost all public figures, sportspersons included, have a social profile via which to communicate with their fans, but this tool can at times become harmful, intolerable. Something that Francesco Bagnaia hinted at in a recent interview, and something that Fabio Quartararo has recently demonstrated.

Using this tool makes the difference

It’s one thing to share an adventure or a thought with your followers and engage in polite conversation, but quite another to receive messages of frustration from people you don’t actually know, the so-called “haters”. Social media is definitely a double-edged sword and Bagnaia himself, just a few days ago, said as much during an interview with Alessandro Cattelan: “I’d have liked to race in an era when social media didn’t exist, it would all have been easier”. This says a lot about the bearing social media can have on a rider. And Quartararo has demonstrated this by deactivating his Instagram after a disappointing race in Thailand and despite the fact he's generally quite active on this channel. “El Diablo” often shares fun content and images of his training or his adventures with friends, not least best mate Tom and rally driver Dani Sordo. But not this time. His profile currently looks like this:

 

Time for a detox

At such a delicate time in championship terms, Quartararo doesn’t feel like interfacing with the virtual world, knowing that he needs to put the anger and disappointment behind him so as to be in the best mental shape for the Australian GP. And so he has decided that the best thing is to take some time out, as Bagnaia does on a regular basis in fact, leaving sister Carola to manage his profile and preferring not to be influenced by a world that is becoming increasingly savage. Already for us ordinary people, let alone for them.

Traslated by Heather Watson

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