The Circuit Ricardo Tormo and the International University of Valencia (VIU) presented today the Motorsport Chair: Road Safety, Performance and Health in Motorsport.
This Chair, the first of its kind in Spain, was addressed by Luis Cervera, Director General of Sport, who stated that “Circuit Ricardo Tormo is one of the most innovative circuits. It is part of our identity as the Valencian Community, because of its sporting roots, the economic impact it generates and the emotions it conveys. What we were missing was this aspect that the Motorsport Chair of VIU and Circuit Ricardo Tormo is going to bring: to organise this knowledge and know how to transfer it. It is a unique case that provides a model that we may be able to replicate”.
Nicolás Collado, Director of Circuit Ricardo Tormo, welcomed attendees, referring to how “the Motorsport Chair provides the Valencian Community with a prestigious body that, in addition to visibility and reputation, attracts talent, investment in R&D and positions VIU and the Circuit as leaders in the world of motorsport. We want this Chair to be not the finish line, but the starting point”. Among those attending were four-time motorcycle world champion Jorge Martínez Aspar and the presidents of the regional motorcycle and motor racing federations.
Along the same lines, Eva Mª Giner Larza, Rector of the International University of Valencia (VIU), part of the higher education network Planeta Formación y Universidades, highlighted at the closing the importance of “initiatives like this Chair that show the importance of collaboration between academic research and elite sport, not only because of their ability to improve athletes’ performance, but also because of their positive impact on society as a whole. Thanks to the Motorsport Chair, issues such as emergency medical care, the relationship between sports driving and the reaction in drivers’ bodies, or their mental health, will be addressed with a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach, with the aim of generating specific scientific results. Circuit Ricardo Tormo will go from being the largest sports facility in the Valencian Community to a unique field research ecosystem in Europe”.
Motorsport Chair
The Motorsport Chair was created with the aim of turning track data and the motorsport ecosystem into scientific knowledge, channelled into outreach, prevention, rehabilitation, publication and protocol activities that have an impact on society and help improve people’s health and safety.
“The creation of the Motorsport Chair responds to a historic need to connect the cutting-edge scientific knowledge that the International University of Valencia can generate with the high-intensity competitive dynamics represented by Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Cheste,” says its director Vicente Gea, Dean of VIU’s Faculty of Health Sciences.
For the Co-Director of the Chair and Deputy Director of Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Bernardo Bonet, “this alliance is not just an opportunity for collaboration. It is a strategic response to some critical challenges in the sector in terms of sport and health, road safety, protecting young talent, and also in terms of producing scientific advances in the world of competition, to make the Chair and the institutions driving it a true international benchmark”.
Vicente Gea, Director of the Chair and Dean at VIU, adds that for all these reasons “its mission is to research, train and disseminate solutions around these four axes mentioned, so that we can generate knowledge and scientific evidence to optimise the interaction between health, the athlete, the machine, the competitive environment and the driver’s vital core. We are talking about aspects such as nutrition, postural hygiene, rehabilitation, first response to trauma or self-care, which are fundamental aspects in that essential balance in top-level competition.”.
But, as both directors point out, its goal goes further, and its scope aims to extend into the world of competitive sport and international high-performance disciplines, to lead the generation of knowledge, safety and health standards in sport, and technical-sport training so that young athletes have a dual career, in which academic training and mental health are present.
Wellbeing and holistic health, psychology and safety
During the presentation of the Motorsport Chair, a round table took place in which participants addressed the pending challenges in the world of motorsport, around the main lines of research the Chair will take on.
Driver Nerea Martí highlighted how “there are pending challenges to which this Chair can provide many solutions, since achieving optimal health—not only physical, but also mental or social—for the athlete and those closest to them, is key to optimising performance in a maximum-competition environment, with special attention to safety”.
