Revealed last year during the Austrian Grand Prix, MotoGP is making the most radical format shake-up to a race weekend for decades in 2023.
On the Saturday of all 21 rounds this season, a sprint race running to half the distance of the main grand prix will take place.
It is a format tweak that is set to have major ramifications on the destiny of the 2023 world championship.
Ahead of this weekend’s first round of the season in Portugal, here is everything you need to know about MotoGP sprint races.
Why is MotoGP running sprint races?
MotoGP is currently trying to re-position itself in the motorsport landscape amidst a drop in interest in the series.
The series tried to boost this by releasing a behind-the-scenes docuseries entitled MotoGP Unlimited on Amazon Prime in March. But the series was deemed a failure and a second season of it was shelved not long into filming.
In a bid to better understand what it needed to do, MotoGP owners Dorna Sports ran a global fan survey in conjunction with Motorsport Network – which had over 100,000 responses.
One idea that was given huge support was to introduce a sprint race to the grand prix weekend format, copying a similar move Formula 1 made in 2021 and what World Superbikes has been doing since 2019.
It is hoped sprint races will offer better value for fans both watching from the track and from home, which in turn should attract more sponsorship and boost overall worldwide exposure.
When will MotoGP sprint races take place?
From the 2023 season, MotoGP will run sprint races on the Saturday of every grand prix event.
This sprint race will take place at 3pm local time for each event, with the usual qualifying session happening earlier in the day to decide the grid for it.
How will the weekend format change for sprint races?
With the addition of a sprint race to every weekend of the season, the schedule for each grand prix has been altered.
Friday will continue to feature two practice sessions, but will now take place later than before.
FP1 will take place at 10:45am local time and run for 45 minutes as before, while FP2 now takes place at 3pm local time and runs for an hour. In all instances on a race weekend, MotoGP sessions will take place after Moto2 and Moto3.
Unlike before, the combined times at the end of Friday’s running will determine who goes into Q2 directly for qualifying and who has to face the knockout Q1 stage.
FP3 on Saturday morning takes place at 10:10am local time and run for 30 minutes, effectively becoming the session FP4 used to be.
Directly after FP3, qualifying will take place from 10:50am to 11:30am local time, taking in Q1 and Q2. The grid order for both the sprint race and the grand prix will be decided in this qualifying session.
The sprint race will take place at 3pm local time.
Sunday’s schedule has also been slightly altered, with MotoGP the only class getting a warm-up session, which has now been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 and will take place at 9:45am local time.
As is traditional, the grand prix will take place at 2pm local time at all European events.
How many points will be awarded for sprint races?
As it is a half-distance race, half points will be awarded for the sprint race, with only the top nine riders scoring.
The scoring system follows as such: 12, 9, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
The current scoring system for the Sunday grand prix will remain in place, meaning a maximum of 37 points is on offer every weekend for a total of 777 across the 21-round season.
Will sprint race wins count in the record books?
Sprint race victories will be counted separately to grand prix wins, meaning the winner of a sprint will not go in the history books as an official GP winner.
How can fans watch MotoGP sprint races in 2023?
MotoGP sprint races will be part of the normal Saturday broadcast. Check the schedule of your MotoGP broadcaster to keep up to date each race weekend.
Are the technical rules different for MotoGP sprint races?
While most current regulations will remain in place for the sprint race as they would for the main grand prix, there are some tweaks to be aware of.
Fuel loads will be limited to an allowance of 12 litres for the sprint instead of the 22L allowed for the grand prix.
Track limits rules have also been tweaked for the sprint race, with the number of allowed infringements before a penalty is awarded being cut from five to three.
Any penalty copped in a sprint race for an incident will be carried into the main grand prix, likewise any punishments handed out pre-race.
Tyre rules will not change for the sprint race and there will be no special sprint race tyres, as there is in World Superbikes.
Because the weekend format has been tweaked to accommodate sprint races, there is no need to add extra engines to teams’ allocation as the mileage for each grand prix weekend will be the same as it was in 2022.
