MotoGP riders have been left divided over the decision not to change the championship’s weekend format at the midpoint of the season, after a proposal to make a modification from Silverstone onwards was rejected at the Dutch TT.
The current format was introduced at the start of 2023 to accommodate the addition of sprint races to every round of the championship, and means that only Friday’s FP1 and FP2 sessions (and not also Saturday morning’s FP3 session, as was the case before) now determine who advances directly to the Q2 qualifying session.
That has in turn drawn criticism from riders thanks to the extra pressure that it puts on them to essentially start trying to set a fast lap time only 30 minutes into every race weekend – a situation that has added a significant amount of pressure to them. The number of fast crashes in FP2 in particular has spiked since the session gained newfound importance.
It has also meant teams that are struggling have been placed at an even greater disadvantage, with no time now set aside for bike development and pure testing work except during Saturday’s shortened 30-minute FP3 session.
As that takes place just ahead of qualifying proper, that also means that there’s an onus on riders to both not push too much and risk destroying their machines as well as to limit the amount of significant changes that can be made to them.
Proposals were floated to amend it to mean that only FP2 on Friday afternoon would count for the Q1/2 qualification, with riders pushing for the change to come into effect as soon as at Silverstone, the next round of the championship after the upcoming five-week summer break.
But because the decision was left in the hands of the factories rather than the riders, it was then subject to the veto vote that each of the series’ five manufacturers has over any change to the technical rules. And it is believed that Ducati has nixed the change – something that Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro led the criticism of.
“All the riders, it looked like in the safety commission, were pushing to change this,” he explained, “to change the Friday schedule to make practice one free, but it looks like Ducati was not in agreement. They voted against this.
“We asked for this change not for a competitive thing or whatever, it was more about safety, to avoid the crashes in practice one, to just avoid a little bit of stress for everyone. But it looks like they didn’t like the idea.
“It’s strange, because believe me their riders were in favour to change this but the bosses of Ducati weren’t, so it’ll stay like this for the season.”
Normally the veto vote held by each manufacturer only applies to technical regulations and can be, according to the concordant agreement between teams and series boss Dorna, overridden on safety grounds, something used in the past to ban front ride height devices.
However, with that rule not applied in this case, Espargaro was left doubly frustrated by the decision taken at Thursday’s Assen meeting.
“That’s a very good question,” he replied when asked by The Race why it wasn’t applied. “But I don’t think I can answer it.
“I was very angry yesterday, because it is a matter of safety. So why did they give them the chance to vote? It’s weird, but it’s even more weird the decision of Ducati.
“They can obviously vote whatever way they want, but I didn’t really understand it and they didn’t really respect the riders.”
Ducati rider and reigning world champion Pecco Bagnaia wouldn’t be drawn on the change blocked by his employer despite being one of those in favour of it in the past, instead simply saying that he would continue to work with the current format when asked if the team’s bosses had explained their decision to block the rule amendment.
“Even if it won’t change, I’ll continue to work like this,” he explained. “I prefer not to make the time attack in the morning, because if you do this you filter a bit the problems of the bike. It’s better to continue riding with the same tyres, you see clearly the drop and where you can improve riding.
“When we see that in the afternoon it looks like rain, then we have to do the time attack, but in this case [at Assen] or like it was in Mugello I prefer to do it like this because it helps me more to improve myself.”
But there was at least one dissenting voice among what otherwise appeared to be a consensus opinion on the matter, with Red Bull KTM rider Jack Miller – who was in favour of the plan a few races ago – now insistent that changing the format mid-season was never the right call.
“I didn’t care to be honest,” he insisted on Friday. “Whether they change it or not, they told us it’s only 2% of the time that FP1 is every faster than FP2 anyway.
“For sure it makes you a little less stressed, but that’s the way the season is and I’m in agreement to not change the schedule or the way that the grands prix go half way though the season. It’s going to be stressful in Silverstone but that’s MotoGP.”
