MotoGP Sprint Races
Saturday Sprint Races will be introduced at all Grands Prix in 2023, maintaining a consistent format across the calendar.
Sprint races will take place at 1500 on the Saturday of each Grand Prix and be approximately 50 per cent of the full race distance.
The Sprint race will have a 15-minute grid procedure, and the sporting rules will be the same as a full-length Grand Prix race on Sunday.
Response from the riders has been mixed. World Champion Fabio Quartararo called the move ‘stupid’.
Sprint Race Points will be awarded as follows:
â–ª 1st Position: 12
â–ª 2nd Position: 9
â–ª 3rd Position: 7
â–ª 4th Position: 6
â–ª 5th Position: 5
â–ª 6th Position: 4
â–ª 7th position: 3
â–ª 8th position: 2
â–ª 9th position: 1
Sprint races will not determine the grid for the Grand Prix race. Riders must be free to race on Saturday, without the need to consider their Sunday grid position. The grids for both the Sprint race and the Grand Prix race will be set from qualifying, which will retain its Q1-Q2 format.
2023 race weekends
The MotoGP class will have two practice sessions on Friday, which will be of a longer duration. The combined time-sheets from these sessions will determine the direct entrants to Q2, guaranteeing Friday increased significance and exposure.
On Saturday morning, the MotoGP class will have one 30-minute Free Practice session (similar to the current FP4), followed by Q1 and Q2 for qualifying. The Sprint Race will then take place at 1500.
Sunday will remain a spectacle for fans and broadcasters, with the Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP Grand Prix races. The target will also be to have MotoGP as the last race on Sunday at each event, allowing for an improved podium ceremony, on-track celebrations and the possibility of fan track invasions at each venue.
MotoGP sessions will be the last of each block, further standardising the format of the race weekend and maintaining the same order throughout each event. Moto3 will be followed by Moto2, followed by MotoGP.
Herve Poncharal, IRTA President
“Back from the summer break, we had a very important meeting together with Mike Trimby to represent the teams as IRTA, with Carmelo and Carlos Ezpeleta. This was really the first time that we saw the project, and from the very beginning, we liked it a lot. If you don’t move forward, you make a step backwards, I think, and although our show is great, maybe the best on Earth, that doesn’t mean we cannot have room for improvement, and there is room for improvement. As Carmelo said to us also, yes, we looked at what is happening somewhere else, and we would be stupid to not look at what is happening somewhere else and works somewhere else. From the very first point I really liked it, we had a meeting with all our colleagues in the Independent MotoGP teams, and universally they supported and they liked it a lot, thinking that it’s going to help also the teams’ business because the media, I’m quite sure, will like it a lot, will love it; the sponsors when the media are more active, will like it a lot.
“So all I can say is we have in mind not to create any inflation, so therefore engine allocation, tyre allocation will remain the same; mileage on the weekend will remain more or less the same. So, there will be no more track action. We will try not to give more work to the riders, but there will be more action, more excitement, which is what MotoGP is all about. I’m very proud to be part of the Championship, to have Carmelo and Jorge next to me to announcing this important news. For sure there are still important things to be fine-tuned. We always listen to everybody and when it is something which is visible and clearly an improvement, we will adapt ourselves. But overall, I think this is an important day for MotoGP, and I believe 2023 will be even more exciting.”
