This Saturday it was announced, prior to the qualifying practice sessions for the Austrian GP, that MotoGP will have sprint races starting in 2023. Jorge Viegas, President of the FIM, Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO of Dorna, and Hervé appeared to announce it. Poncharal, President of IRTA.
Now, the International Motorcycling Federation (FIM) has issued a statement detailing, in writing, what these new short races will be like.
The ‘sprint’ tests, which will be held in all the Grand Prix on the 2023 calendar, will take place at 3:00 p.m. , always on Saturday.
Its duration will be “approximately 50% of the total race distance”. In other words, if the race is, as in the case of the current Austrian GP, 28 laps, the short race would be held at approximately 14 laps.
The grid procedure will be 15 minutes, similar to that of the main race.
But one of the points that aroused the most doubts yesterday after the scoop offered by Motorsport.com was the one referring to the scoring system. The FIM has clarified that approximately half of the usual points of the feature race will be distributed.
Thus, the winner of the ‘sprint’ test will add 12 points (compared to 25 in the long run), the second 9 (compared to 20), the third 7 (compared to 16), and so on until the ninth classified, who will receive the last point.
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The short race will also have no effect on the grid formation on Sunday. Unlike the format used in other championships, such as Formula 1 or the WSBK, whoever wins the ‘sprint’ race will not start from pole on Sunday (unless, of course, he was the fastest in qualifying Q2 ).
In this sense, the statement says that “drivers must be free to compete on Saturday, without having to take any precautions in order to maintain a good grid position on Sunday.”
But, in order to give time to the ‘sprint’ session, you must first take it away from other training sessions. The Friday program will remain as it is, with two free sessions (FP1 and FP2), although they will last longer (currently they are 45 minutes). The direct pass to Q2 will be decided with the records of these first two sessions.
On Saturday morning, the drivers will have a third free practice of 30 minutes, which will take the place of the current FP4. At the end of the reduced FP3, the pilots will contest the qualifying session, without changes with respect to the current format.
In summary, in order to start the short race at 15:00, the classification for Q2 is restricted to FP1 and FP2, the duration of FP3 is reduced and FP4 is eliminated.
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