MotoGP announces a revolution: there will be two races every weekend

The MotoGP World Championship will change its format significantly next year after noting a drop in interest in recent years.

In a press conference described as exceptional, although without any script and with an improvised air, the promoter of the contest, the International Motorcycling Federation and the manufacturers' association announced in Austria the introduction of sprint races, tests of a shorter duration in comparison with the traditional Sunday ones, every Saturday of the grand prize.

The proposal is radical, since it will be applied at all the stops on the calendar, doubling the competitive load of some pilots who found out about the paradigm shift through the media.

“We want to generate more interest, have a more attractive proposal for fans, brands and televisions.

Our objective is to improve the visibility of the championship”, explained Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO of Dorna.

The format is not yet closed, and details need to be polished that will be discussed taking into account the opinion of all the actors.

As confirmed by Jorge Viegas, president of the FIM, the new test will count for the general classification of the contest and will have half the duration of the traditional race on Sundays.

In the same way, half the points will be distributed and the emergence of the new format will not imply a change in the current qualifying sessions – the two rounds divided into Q1 and Q2 will continue to exist to determine the grid positions both on Saturday and on Sunday-.

“The teams unanimously agreed.

We think that all this can be good for the show and for the business”, explained Hervé Poncharal, president of IRTA, the association of participating brands.

“There will be no more time on the track, but more action and spectacle.

No more engines and no more tires will be used, and the number of kilometers in a race weekend will stay more or less the same”, he added when discussing the possible controversy with the drivers.

The protagonists on the layout gave different opinions when asked about the matter.

"I don't think it's right to make such a change without the opinion of the riders," said Fabio Quartararo, current world champion.

The Frenchman from Yamaha came to call the idea stupid.

Who best expressed the doubts of the athletes was Pol Espargaró, currently at Honda and the next main course of the new KTM project in association with the Spanish brand GasGas: “The idea is that we are going to take twice the risk, doing the same job and charging the same money.

There were also positive opinions, led by Jack Miller (Ducati) and Maverick Viñales (Aprilia).

“It will be something that the fans will love.

Obviously it increases the risk;

but we are pilots, not dancers, ”said the Australian.

The one from Roses was sympathetic to the reasons for the announced revolution: "This is a show and we have to promote it."

Marc Márquez,

Faced with the avalanche of questions about the opinion of the pilots, the president of the FIM recalled that other changes in format also led to resistance in the past.

"In Superbikes we have three races, and at first there were reluctance, but now the format is consolidated and it has been shown that it has worked", he pointed out.

Ezpeleta wanted to underline that although they have studied what happens in other disciplines, as in the case of Formula 1, which introduced three sprint races on its calendar last year, the format is tailored to MotoGP and does not have to compare.

On the raised dust, the boss of Dorna threw balls out: "The pilots must be informed by their own teams, it is not our thing".

After proposing a global fan survey at the beginning of the summer, it seems that the Spanish company, which has managed the World Cup since 1991, has decided to take action to improve the quality of the show and regain the interest of the public, manufacturers and sponsors, aware that other championships have surpassed them in this regard.

Formula 1, which also went through a period of significant weakness, has already completed a significant transformation of its product that has once again raised audience ratings and sparked unprecedented interest in deep-seated markets such as the United States.

The queen category of four wheels comes from increasing its popularity ratings for the fourth consecutive year,

and its digital strategy on social networks and a highly successful series on the Netflix content platform has catapulted its popularity among the young generations.

Although they do not say it in the open, from the summit championship of the two wheels they want to take a similar step with this change and those that are to come.

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