Doctor Claudio Costa, a MotoGP institution with his Mobile Clinic, talks about his regret for not having been present in Sepang on the day of Marco Simoncelli’s death: “I’m not referring to a medical fact”.
Claudio Costa83 years old in February, is a mythical figure of MotoGP: the doctor from Imola invented the Mobile Clinic, or the emergency response structure on the track which has since saved the lives of dozens of drivers. Before then, motorcyclists who were involved in more or less serious accidents had to be transported to the nearest hospital to receive first aid, often losing crucial time to save them from death. Many of them have been saved in these 40 years of racing, but not Marco Simoncelliwho died at the age of 24 on 23 October 2011 during the first lap of the Malaysian Grand Prix. Doctor Costa wasn’t there that day and is convinced that if he had been in Sepang, Marco would not have died. But not because he could have helped him better than others: there is something else.
Doctor Claudio Costa with Marco Simoncelli’s father, Paolo
Doctor Costa’s regret about Simoncelli
Something that has also tormented Simoncelli’s father for years, that same detail of Marco on the starting grid of the Malaysian GP: “I wasn’t in Sepang, if I had spent the moments before the race with him things would probably have gone differently – explains Costa to Corriere della Sera – I’m not referring to a medical fact, whoever assisted him did more than was impossible. But I’m a very superstitious person and on the starting line Marco had his towel inside out. I couldn’t have ignored this. Paolo, his father, burned that towel“.
Simoncelli with the towel upside down on his head, on the grid of the 2011 Malaysian GP
The overturned towel, the story of dad Paolo
That number 58 backwardsclearly visible on the wet towel that Simoncelli had put on his head to find refreshment in the torrid climate of Sepang, was already present in the heartfelt story told by his father Paolo some time ago: “It’s the only regret of my life, not having given him that towel. Every time I look at that image, it hurts me. That same day, I arrived in the garage with that towel and put it down where I usually did, but it all fell on the floor.“.
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“So I took the scooter to go along the track to watch the race: as soon as I crossed the gate, an icy wind that smelled of death, I swear, came upon me. A feeling of death, to the point that I said to myself: ‘I have to go and stop Marco’. There was a minute left before the start of the race, there was no time left, my scooter wasn’t working well… Those five minutes were terrible“, Paolo Simoncelli had said. Sensations that Doctor Costa had also had ten thousand kilometers away.
