MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

After the Austrian GP at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, a video emerged on social media of Ducati team boss Davide Tardozzi in an altercation with a person dressed in Aprilia teamwear in the pit lane, just before the pit lane walk for fans. In it, Tardozzi could be seen getting up close to the presumed Aprilia staffer and lecturing him forcefully. 

A day or so later, we found out what had enraged Tardozzi so much. Another video emerged of the suspected Aprilia staffer using a tablet to either film or scan the rear of the Ducati GP23 parked outside the Pertamina Enduro VR46 garage.

Speaking to German language publication Speedweek, Davide Tardozzi explained what he was doing, and why he reacted so strongly. The suspected Aprilia staffer had been up and down pit lane scanning other bikes as well, including the Ducati GP24s of Pramac and the Monster Energy Yamaha bikes.

It was not just the filming, however. The presumed Aprilia staffer had been filming within 10cm of the bikes, Tardozzi claimed, and scanning the tails very closely. The objective was clearly to get the bikes in as much detail as possible. And Tardozzi claimed that the bikes were being scanned, and not just filmed. "One of our guys was directly behind him," Tardozzi told Speedweek. "So we have a video of his iPad screen. That's how we know that he was scanning the bikes with a program."

The other reason Tardozzi was so angry was because of the moment it was happening. The bikes had all been put out for a fan pit walk, as you can tell from the blue tape visible in the first video. This was a blatant violation of etiquette, at the very least. It may also be related to the fact that Aprilia were testing new tail wings on the Trackhouse bikes in Austria.

Aprilia claimed not to know anything about the occurrence. Tardozzi told Speedweek that he had spoken to Romano Albesiano about the man in Aprilia teamwear scanning the bikes, and Albesiano had told Tardozzi that he had not known anything about what the suspected Aprilia staffer was doing, and had been angry about what had happened. Aprilia had apologized, Tardozzi said. "But it isn't fair."

Tardozzi said he told the presumed Aprilia staffer that "he was doing something which is not allowed."  But is this correct? It was, as I said, certainly a breach of etiquette, and a breach of trust. When the teams put the bikes out in pit lane for the fan walk, there is an unspoken truce that teams will not blatantly photograph each other's bikes.

That doesn't mean they don't get photographed. I am aware of at least three factories that have photographers taking pictures of the bikes, including during the fan pit lane walk. They are at least discrete about it, also to avoid any appearance of impropriety, if not the fact of it.

That isn't the only time photographers (official and unofficial) are looking for pictures of rival manufacturers' bikes. It is common to take photos while the bikes are being warmed up in pit lane in the morning and evening, and just before a session starts. There are also bikes put out in pit lane during the sighting lap and grid procedure, ready to go in case of a mechanical issue. And the garages are open during all of the official practice sessions, though photographers are reminded to stay outside of the garage, on the correct side of the line which marks pit lane.

Even during these moments, when photographers have every right to be taking pictures, team staff can get very annoyed at anyone trying to take a photo. Every photographer seems to have a picture of Davide Tardozzi's hands waving in front of their cameras, and I have been shouted at my mechanics and engineers of just about every MotoGP manufacturer.

KTM is something of an exception here. The RC16 is frequently photographed without the fairings on, as the mechanics have been told they do not need to worry too much about working behind the privacy screens the other factories put up whenever they take the fairings off. 

That is the advantage of using a unique technology. Photos of the RC16's chassis were of little use to other factories when KTM were building frames using 3D printed steel tubes, and now they have switched to carbon fiber (the only manufacturer to do so), such photos are also pretty much impossible to interpret. Rigidity and flexibility are not obviously apparent, nor obviously related to the size and shape of the chassis parts visible from outside. The magic is in the layup, and the thickness of layers, which you can only work out using destructive testing or X-ray analysis. So far, no one has managed to smuggle an X-ray scanner into pit lane.