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Less than 24 hours after announcing that the 2023 MotoGP season will feature sprint races at every single round of the calendar, series promoter Dorna has seemingly already seemingly reversed one decision, by clarifying that sprint race success will not count towards a rider’s record of grand prix wins and podiums.
What happens to the record books has been one of the most controversial aspects of the new format, with many fans outraged that the effective doubling of the size of the current calendar with the addition of half-distance races would effectively devalue the CVs of past racers who were limited to as few as 16 races a year in the modern era.
However, speaking in the surprisingly defensive press conference at the Austrian Grand Prix to announce the biggest format change in the sport’s 73-year history, FIM President Jorge Viegas seemingly suggested that despite being half the distance of a full grand prix and only awarding less than half the points, the new races would still be included in a racer’s palmares.
This is already the case in MotoGP’s sister series World Superbikes, which has a ‘Superpole’ sprint race between the first and second full-length races.
“I think we can better think about this,” Viegas said, “but a victory is a victory. There is a podium, there is a trophy, so why not make it count?”
However, those comments have already been dialled back on by Dorna’s Sporting managing director Carlos Ezpeleta, with the series issuing quotes from him on Sunday morning to clarify that sprint races would instead become an extra line item in a rider’s profile.
“In the end, this is not another Grand Prix race that we’re adding to the weekend, to the format,” the son of Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta said. “We’re basically changing one practice for a sprint Race which will give points, meaning that from now on for the historical data, it will be the Sunday that continues to give the GP winner. So the winner of the grand prix will be the winner of the race.
“Then historically the riders will have one more row of data on, let’s say, on their profile. So a rider will have a number of fastest laps, a number of poles, a number of podiums for which it will only count the podiums of the Sunday, and a number of victories. And from now on, they will have a number of sprint race victories. That will be one more row on their profile.
“There will be a podium for the sprint race, but it will not count for the total number of podiums that the rider has. And you know, finally will be the GP winner, will be the one that wins the race on Sunday will be exciting for the fans.”
