JAKARTA - The Mandalika MotoGP pre-season test which was held at the Mandaika Circuit, Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) for three days, February 11-13, 2022, gave great interest to fans of this motorcycle race, especially Indonesians. The presence of world-class racers since February 7 has also attracted the attention of netizens who have been waiting for this prestigious motor racing event.
Sunday night, February 13, 2022, the official MotoGP account said goodbye to Mandalika as a sign of the end of the pre-season testing session there. Tests on Indonesian-owned circuits by MotoGP riders brought euphoria and a flood of positive sentiment from netizens.
Media Monitoring Netray monitors the passion and enthusiasm of netizens for the Mandalika MotoGP through tweets on the Twitter channel. The following are the results of Netray's monitoring.
82K Tweets
Based on observations during the period February 7-13, 2022, there were 82 thousand tweets that included the keywords Mandalika and Lombok. The enthusiasm of netizens can be called great, because there are 400 million impressions and almost 250 million accounts talking about the Mandalika 2022 MotoGP pre-season test.
The percentage of praise for the Mandalika MotoGP event is greater than ridicule. 52 percent of all tweets, or 42.000 tweets, were commendable.
The official MotoGP account tweet stating that the Mandalika Circuit is the most beautiful circuit in the world is a satisfaction for the Indonesian people. The tweet was liked by more than 39 thousand accounts. In addition, many netizens also expressed their pride in the government's efforts to build the circuit.
Words with positive sentiment connotations, such as: proud, cool, beautiful, or more beautiful are scattered. This is an indication that positive sentiment from netizens is indeed more dominant.
Riders' Upload
The uploads of the riders on their accounts are also an added value, a positive promotion for the Mandalika MotoGP. The riders since arriving on February 7 have been very active in sharing their activities in Lombok.
Marc Marquez, for example, who immediately uploaded a photo of his arrival on his Instagram account. Or Johann Zarco who plays chess and says goodbye in Indonesian, Enea Bastianini who chases bats out of his hotel room, Miguel Oliviera jogging, and various other uploads.
Based on this upload, netizens have come to understand that the construction of Mandalika is not only for racing. The mission of marketing tourism in Lombok is a much bigger job. The MotoGP racing series is only one way to bring tourists to Lombok.
Negative Sentiment
In addition to the flood of praise, the implementation of the Mandalika MotoGP pre-season test also invited ridicule and even insults. The first issue that invites negative sentiment is the demonstration of a group of people in front of the circuit gate, with the demand to be employed in the Mandalika MotoGP racing project.
Netizens thought that the demonstration was reasonable, because the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (Menko PMK) Muhadjir Effendy once revealed that the Mandalika MotoGP is one way to overcome unemployment and poverty in the region.
There were also netizens who thought that the demonstration was inappropriate. The actions of this group of people are considered shameful and tarnish the face of the Indonesian nation.
The second issue is the readiness of the Mandalika Circuit. The issue of circuit readiness has been covered a lot by the mainstream media. It rained the night before the MotoGP pre-season test started on February 11, making the circuit muddy, muddy and flooded.
The flow of water brings gravel to the track, so it is considered a danger to the riders who are riding their motorbikes at high speed. Not a few netizens say that the Mandalika Circuit is not ready to be used as a large motorcycle racing arena in the MotoGP class.
Funny Incidents
Apart from flattery and ridicule, there are also uploads of funny and unique events related to the Mandalika MotoGP pre-season test. For example, a netizen upload showing Marquez eating a snack. The activity of the top racer automatically invites comments from netizens, who think that Marquez is already familiar with fried foods even though he has only been in Indonesia for a few days.
There is also an upload in the form of public enthusiasm watching the Mandalika MotoGP pre-season test from the top of the hill. There are also uploads in the form of buffalo still roaming around the circuit.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
