MotoGP wants to race during the TT Assen next season not only on Sunday, but also on Saturday. Just like in Formula 1, it will be a sprint race.
Where Formula 1 only has a sprint race three times a season, in MotoGP this has to happen every GP weekend. With the sprint races, the organization of the World Championships motorcycle race wants to attract more audience and TV viewers.
“We have all made a lot of sacrifices over the past two years during the corona crisis to keep this championship running,” said Jorge Viegas, president of the international motorsport federation FIM at a press conference at the Austrian Grand Prix. “We need more audience, a better show and more visibility on TV. So we need to offer a better program and make Saturday more attractive.”
Unlike in Formula 1, the result of the sprint race does not determine the starting order of the main race on Sunday. MotoGP keeps the result of qualifying for that. The sprint race is about half the number of laps of the main race. The winner gets 12 points, the number 2 gets 9 points for the World Cup standings and the driver who finishes third gets 7 points. It goes down to 1 point for the number 9 of the sprint race. In the main race, the first fifteen drivers receive points, 25 of which are for the winner.
The sprint races are only entered in MotoGP. The Moto3 and Moto2, in which the Dutchmen Bo Bendsneyder and Zonta van den Goorbergh compete, stick to the current concept.
Not everyone is happy with the introduction of the sprint races. Reigning world champion Fabio Quartararo, also the current World Cup leader, called it “an incredibly stupid idea”. The Frenchman thinks the race weekend will be too busy for the drivers.