The Coronavirus disease pandemic has significantly influenced the activities of all the FIM Commissions. In the “Commissions Update” series, the Commission Directors will explain how they have modified their working processes during these extraordinary times and how they foresee the future.
The Circuit Racing Commission Director Franck Vayssié admits that this extraordinary year has been very challenging.
“I have to say that COVID-19 made this season pretty difficult! As everyone else in the world, we at the CCR Commission were not expecting to have such an unpredictable and unbelievable situation. The pandemic has completely turned our sporting season upside down, and despite our continuous efforts as well as our partners’, we have not been able to save all the events, in particular due to government restrictions for public health reasons”, Vayssié says.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Circuit Racing Commission had a calendar of 70 events and 183 races from the end of February to mid-November.
“After four months of sporting activity interruption, we succeeded with our promoters and partners in planning 50 events (141 races) over a period of five months, from mid-July to the end of November.”
“Dorna, Eurosport Event, Santander Ltd and all our organizers worked very hard with us and I must admit that this crisis highlighted more than ever before how much each of us is part of the FIM Family, working all together towards the same goal.”
Together all the partners and CCR managed to save more than 75 % of the races. Most of the championships were able to resume by mid-July.
“We must thank our partners who, thanks to their tremendous continuous efforts and negotiations with governing authorities, have managed to save the sporting season and offer our athletes a season which ensures the continuity of their careers and maintains the fans´ enthusiasm for our sport”, Vayssie highlights.
“However, we deplore the cancellation of the FIM Sidecar World Championship. Despite the massive investments of our new promoter, Santander Ltd and the continuous support of the circuits and FMNRs, the travel restrictions in Europe and the quarantine periods imposed by the various governments, our teams, whose budgets are fragile, could not compose a grid that could ensure a good level of competition.”
However, Mr. Roger Body and his team from Santander Salt Ltd are organizing, without engagement nor responsibility for the FIM, two international events for the teams to test their sidecars and maintain a sporting activity in 2020. “It will undoubtedly be a great preparation for next season!”
The sporting season being saved with a complete revised calendar, the other great challenge, was to make sure the CCR could provide officials for every single event. “Our nominations table was complete before the COVID-19 started but because of this unpredictable situation, lots of our members were no longer able to attend the new dates, due to their national, personal or professional commitments. This year more than ever, we have been able to count on the indefatigable support of these passionate volunteers who, despite a busy and extended schedule due to the interruption of the competitions, and also despite the new risks, have made themselves available to ensure the smooth running of the events that could not be held without sporting nor disciplinary authorities.”
“All the CCR members and our two CCR coordinators are a great example of commitment and they have a great sense of responsibility. I consider myself very lucky to work with them all and I will never thank them enough for their work, support and dedication to CCR.”
When the season finally restarted mid-July, and due to the uncertainty of the situation across the world, CCR also had to put in place and integrate lots of new safety measures in order to comply with governments’ COVID-19-related regulations. The FIM International Medical Commission (CMI), its Director, Dr. David McManus, and all the FIM Medical members worked to set up and implement rules and, thanks to their great help, FIM is still able to hold racing activities.
“I take the opportunity, to remind everyone how important it is to scrupulously follow the COVID-19 protocols of each discipline that are put in place to attend the FIM events. We know it’s a new constraint, which is very much necessary in order to avoid to spread the virus and jeopardize others’ safety. As the governments trust us to resume the sporting activity, we have to ensure that all the measures to keep everybody safe are put in place and complied with. Only with the collaboration of everyone will we be able to keep our activities safe and prevent the imposition of stronger protection measures and restrictions or even worse: the cancelation of our events.”
Despite the fact that racing season has now resumed, Vayssié misses the contact with the members.
“It has not been, and still is, not easy to get in touch as often as we wanted, with all our members. The CCR is a big commission with now 34 members. We usually have a lot of activities such as instructing seminars, racing activities, circuit visits for the purpose of FIM homologation, which allows us to meet with our members more often. This year, lots of these activities have been postponed and unfortunately it is very difficult to touch base with everyone. Obviously we have electronic communication means but when it comes to friendship, nothing can replace a real meeting.”
“Another consequence of this global activities lockdown, is that we had to adapt, together with the FIM Technical Commission (CTI), the commission director Fabio Fazi and his team, as regards certain regulations in order to reduce costs for the teams and manufacturers who were severely impacted by the global situation.”
Despite all the challenges, Vayssié sees something positive about this situation.
“One of the positive aspects that stem from this worldwide crisis is that it forced us to rethink our usual way of working and made us use communication tools, such as video conferences, in a much more efficient way. In the future, we will need the understanding and help of everybody in order to process the changes that need to be done to be as efficient as possible despite the constraints. The common safety project with the FIA, held by video-conference, provided us with a very good example in this regard.”
The CCR commission will try to resume its activities during the coming months as much as possible.
“In the coming months, we will organize the CCR end of season meeting, and the current situation has forced us to review the traditional set up, that was to host all our members on a sporting event around the world. Most probably, we may have to opt for the video conference option, in order to keep everybody safe and avoid logistic issues such as flight cancellations, having to perform COVID tests and comply with mandatory days of quarantine when entering or exiting some countries.”
“Unfortunately this crisis is not over yet, but because I am an unconditionally optimistic person I think there is a positive aspect in every situation, even in the worst. In that case, we, at the CCR, consider that there is a lot to learn from this crisis, namely developing new meeting processes, being more reactive when faced with unexpected challenges, enhancing our internal communication, working closer than ever with the other FIM Commissions and partners. All these points can, must and will be improved. This is the positive outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic: We are now stronger than ever!”
After all, Vayssié is confident about the future.
“Despite all these challenging past and future situations, we are very confident about the future and thanks to the collective efforts, we have no doubt that the worst is behind us, and that the days ahead will be brighter.”
FIM Communications