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Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme

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On March 5th, the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) announced its condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and in that announcement, it suspended the Motorcycle Federation of Russia (MFR) and the Belarusian Federation of Motorcycle Sport (BFMS) from FIM-sanctioned events.

This action also banned Russian and Belarusian from FIM-sanctioned events, and recommended that affiliated members of the FIM and FIM Continental Unions take similar action.

The FIM North America is going to heed that request, which means that Russian and Belarusian riders are banned from events that are operated by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) and Canadian Motorcycle Association (CMA).

The FIM has made the decision to condemn publicly the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and as a result of that condemnation, Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials will no longer be able to participate in FIM-sanctioned motorcycle events.

The FIM is also canceling any FIM events, meetings, or races taking place in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, and if applicable, relocating them to another country.

Lastly, the FIM is also recommending that all of its affiliated members and continental unions, like MotoAmerica, take similar measures in barring Russian and Belarusian riders from racing at their events.

The International Disciplinary Court of the FIM has reached a decision at last. Andrea Iannone has been found guilty of having a banned substance in his bloodstream, and suspended from competition for 18 months.

The ban is backdated to December 17th, 2019, meaning that Iannone will be eligible to compete from June 16th, 2021.

The ban of 18 months is a reduction from the maximum allowed by the rules of 4 years, and an acknowledgement that Iannone did not ingest the banned substance – anabolic steroid drostanolone – with intent.

This past weekend was an historic one for motor racing, as the Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) and the Federation Internationale de L’Automobile (FIA) combined their forces to hold the first-ever motorsport conference for women.

The conference was held in Vierumäki, Finland, and aimed to bring conversation around women empowerment, leadership, women’s role in the industry, and the future task of involving girls in motorsports.

The two-day event saw nearly 40 speakers (mostly women) from 25 countries and 5 continents sharing their stories and experiences in motorsport. 

Things are going poorly for Romano Fenati. His actions during Sunday’s Moto2 race at Misano, when he reached over and squeezed Stefano Manzi’s front brake, are having far-reaching repercussions. 

On Sunday, the FIM Panel of Stewards penalized Fenati with a two-race ban. On Monday morning, he was sacked from his current Moto2 ride by the Marinelli Snipers Racing Team. On Monday afternoon, he also lost his 2019 ride with the MV Agusta Forward Racing Team. 

More was to come on Tuesday. First, the Italian motorcycle federation FMI revoked Fenati’s racing license for all sporting activities in Italy. This also renders him ineligible to compete in any international or world championship events, as international racing licenses are also issued by the national federation, which in Fenati’s case is the FMI. He has been invited to a hearing on September 14th, at which he will have the right to representation by a lawyer.

Then, the FIM, the international motorcycling federation, summoned Fenati to the FIM headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, to explain his actions. In a press release, shown at the bottom of this story, FIM President Vito Ippolito summoned Fenati to the FIM to hear his side of the story, before considering further action against the Italian.

The FIM is getting into the helmet certification game, creating a new protocol – as part of the FIM Racing Homologation Programme (FRHP) – to test helmets that are worn in FIM-sanctioned motorcycle races.

Previously, the FIM had relied upon domestic testing criteria, such as DOT standards in the United States, ECE standards in Europe, and SG/JIS standards in Japan.

With those standards varying in how they test motorcycle helmets though, the FIM Technical and Circuit Racing Commissions saw a need to create a single unifying helmet crash test protocol that will be used at any event the FIM sanctions, starting in the year 2019.

Going forward, the MotoGP Championship will begin testing its riders for alcohol consumption, adding a breathalyzer test to its random drug screening process.

While alcohol use has been banned in MotoGP since 2004, today’s news comes as the FIM has added the testing protocol to its 2017 medical code.

Like its current process regarding the screening for drug use, the FIM will pick three random riders before several rounds during the season, and make them take a mandatory breathalyzer test.

The Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme is set for some new leadership, as Steve Aeschlimann has been appointed to take over from Ignacio Verneda as CEO of the FIM.

Aeschlimann has been a senior member of the FIM since 2011, holding several high ranks within the organization during his tenure. Before joining the FIM, Aeschlimann was the Director of the UEFA, the European Football Union.

Now as the CEO of the FIM, Aeschlimann’s goal will be to modernize motorcycling’s highest governing body, which will be no easy task.

The Sepang Clash, as Dorna would like for us to refer to it, continues to send shockwaves down the sport; as videos emerge of altercations between entourages at the track, photos and messages of hate circulate around social media, and the latest entry with Repsol releasing a strongly worded press release that calls into question the future of the Spanish company’s involvement in MotoGP.

David has already written exhaustively about the events at the track, and we have little interest here at Asphalt & Rubber in fueling the fire that was started in Sepang. Needless to say, no one is winning in all of this, and the sport is clearly getting a black eye because of all these actions.

While hopefully cooler heads prevail, it’s clear that things are still hot and heavy in the MotoGP Championship. Addressing some of the more unsavory acts that have come as a result of the on-track action at the Malaysian GP, FIM President Vito Ippolito has penned an open letter to the various stakeholders in the world championship.

While he doesn’t speak to anyone by name, it is very clear who are the different parties that Ippolito is reprimanding. You can read his letter after the jump.

The ballots are in, and Vito Ippolito will continue as the President of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), for the next four years. Ippolito was re-relected at the FIM General Assembly held in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain. With 103 national motorcycle federations taking part in the voting, Ippolito defeated rival Jorge Viegas of Portugal with 62 votes to 41.

For those who don’t know the sixty-two-year-old Venezuelan-born Ippolito, he has an impressive career in motorcycling. He was the manager of Team Venemotos, during the period their rider Carlos Lavado won the 250GP World Championships in 1983 and 1986. He was also the President of the FMV (Venezuelan Federation) from 1992 to 2006, and has been involved with duties at the FIM since 1984.

With the recent announcement that Alstare and Bimota are to join forces, and headed to go race in the World Superbike Championship, many wondered how the boutique Italian brand would meet the homologation requirements, established for WSBK racing, with the Bimota BB3 superbike.

A similar eyebrow was raised when Erik Buell Racing announced its intention to switch from AMA Pro Road Racing to World Superbike, as the OEM clearly didn’t have the manufacturing capacity to produce the requisite number of motorcycles according to the FIM’s timetable.

Well those questions seemed to have been answered, as the FIM has released a statement — well more a statement promising a future statement — that hints at future rule changes for homologation requirments.