After 45 years of history, the Clinica Mobile’s experience in MotoGP ends. The medical facility founded by Dr. Costa will leave the paddock.
The MotoGP paddock intends to change its face from next year, with the introduction of several new features, some that will cause a lot of discussion. Not so much for the introduction of two new stages in the calendar as Kazakhstan and Indianot only for the establishment of Sprint Races on Saturdays, but also for the elimination of a reference structure for almost half a century.
Indeed Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO of Dorna, will announce the non-renewal with the Clinica Mobile, probably due to events related to questions of interest and economic. Providing the health services pilots need will be Quirón Salud, the hospital group headed by Dr. Angel Charte, who works as the head of internal medicine of intensive care at the Dexeus University Hospital in Barcelona and is also the head of the MotoGP medical service. After Dr. Claudio Costa’s exit he has increasingly taken hold in the MotoGP paddock, eventually replacing the historic outpatient facility.
The Mobile Clinic leaves the MotoGP
There Mobile Clinic he will bid farewell to the World Championship at the end of the season after having worked on the track since 1977, when the Dr. Claudio Costa has decided to put at the service of the pilots a first assistance service in case of need. Thanks to the financial help of Gino Misano, founder of the AGV helmet brand, he set up a small field hospital in the paddock, becoming the motorhome most frequented by riders on race weekends.
Here they also come for physiotherapy sessions, but not only. The Mobile Clinic has saved the lives of many athletes, from Graziano Rossi to Franco Uncini, from Phillippe Coulon to Mick Doohan. From 2023 we will be able to see it again at work in the Superbike World Championship, a category in which at the moment the Quiròn Salud of dr. Angel Charte.
Currently the staff of the Mobile Clinic, directed by dr. Michele Zasa, has nine doctors and up to 24 physiotherapists. Waiting for the official press release, which could be issued at the Thailand Grand Prix, it remains to be seen how the riders will react. If they will silently accept as always a decision taken from above or will they be able to make their voice heard against a maneuver by the Dorna with still unclear contours.
