In their intention to revive a product that is losing its audience with the departures of the so-called ‘The Fantastic Four’ led by Valentino Rossi, those responsible for the MotoGP rights will start a radical change in their program from the 2023 Grand Prix to give more television minutes to its star drivers and a competition between 20 and 25 minutes that promises to be one of the most spectacular, the new Sprint Race. Between skepticism and total acceptance move the pilots who always prefer a competition before a training session.
1
The format
The Sprint Race is only for MotoGP and always takes place on Saturday at 3 local time, except in Kazakhstan (16 local time) and Qatar (20 local time). Classification for the grid will come from Q1 and Q2 early on Saturday morning and unlike Superbike or F1 this will not influence its result for Sunday’s race, with the starting grid being the same as it appears in Q1 and Q2 on Saturday. .
2
race distance
The Sprint Race will last approximately half of Sunday’s race and the number of laps will vary from one Grand Prix to another due to the length of the circuit. It will be a 10-lap sprint at Austin, Silverstone and Sepang, 11 laps at Mugello and Lusail, 12 laps at Portimao, Termas de Río Hondo, Jerez, Catalunya, Buddh and Motegi, 13 laps at Le Mans, Assen, Sokol , Misano, Mandalika, Phillip Island, Buriram and Cheste, 14 laps away at the Red Bull Ring and 15 laps away at the Sachsenring. By regulation they will only have 12 liters to face the race and they can build a new specific tank just for them. There were no special tires, or extra tires when the old FP3 was removed -there were seven soft and five hard with three front and two rear compounds for a GP-
3
The points it shares
Only the first nine will receive points that count towards the general classification, so this year the scoring record for a MotoGP campaign will be broken. The distribution of points is 12 for the winner, 9 for the second and 7 for the third and from there, 6 for the fourth and successively to the ninth, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point. The podium will be a different ceremony than usual, it will be a public walk through the paddock, a formula they have already successfully implemented in Superbike.
4
It has nothing to do with Formula One
MotoGP does not deny copying the most precise moves of Formula One and Liberty Media shyly introduced Sprint Races, three in 2021 tests and another three in 2022 and now in 2023 there are already six. But Dorna went big and introduced it at every Grand Prix. The example is closer, the World Superbike, a competition also run by Dorna, which introduced in 2019 a sprint race there called the Superpole Race. And unlike F1 and WorldSBK it doesn’t count for Sunday’s starting grid, and in F1 the top-8 marks. In 2022 in F1 the winner of the Sprint and the Race coincided in two of the three appointments.
5
Economic bonuses divide them
The announcement of the sprint races for 2023 surprised most MotoGP riders last summer. Since most of their contract renewals have already been signed, they do not include a clear economic bonus from the number of races. Since the team leaders, managers and Dorna met again in Sepang to start the preseason, they tried to reach an agreed solution and assessed that it came from the common fund, but they have not yet agreed. The most likely thing is that the teams will finally be the ones to agree on bonuses to their pilots individually.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
