by STEFANO OLLANU
MotoGP, one year Sprint
To convey interest towards the premier category of the MotoGP, in 2023 FIM and Dorna have decided to shake up the championship, in fact mixing up the format and doubling the number of races with the introduction of the Sprint on Saturday afternoons. The president of the Federation had triumphantly announced: “We will have 42 starts“, hitting hard on the entertainment factor. And during the season, reports were released that validated the choice of top management, with audience data – on television and in the stands of the circuits – showing a clearly positive sign. There was a world championship battle between Francesco Bagnaia which lasted until the last grand prix of the season. At first glance the goal was achieved, but Was it really a great season for MotoGP?
Accidents and injuries
Motorcycling is a decidedly dangerous sport and the 2023 season has demonstrated this, without a shadow of contradiction. FIM and Dorna have decided to compact the format, to make Friday already decisive in view of qualifying and to double the number of races and starts. And the pilots paid for this choice personally: Never have the 22 starting drivers raced together in a Sunday race. An incredible fact, the result of 52 absences in the 20 world stages. An average of 2.6 centaurs absent on the starting grid, impressive.
During the course of the season, changes were made to make Friday FP1 separate from direct access to Q1. A step forward, but not a decisive one. And the physical fatigue of the riders was not considered at all, so much so that a calendar was drawn up with the show conclusion – which will be repeated in 2024 – of two hat-tricks spaced by just one week, before the grand finale in Valencia.
The format currently remains unchanged: we will start again as the season ended.
Imperfect tires and case pressures
And the discussion relating to accidents can be linked to the increased risk of accidents imperfect tires. Michelin draws the tires assigned to the drivers, but more than once the centaurs found themselves struggling with tires without grip from the first lap on the track. And if Jorge Martin in Qatar saw his world championship hopes sink precisely because of this problem, Francesco Bagnaia in Barcelona saw himself thrown into the air from his Ducati and hit – fortunately only in the leg – by the oncoming group of pilots. An incredible risk. The French tire manufacturer has ruled out problems with its tyres – as well as the men of Borgo Panigale on their motorbikes – and therefore what happened remains a mystery, with a clear question mark about the future.
Then there is the pressure on each other. From Silverstone it was decided to intervene on a problem that had been monitored for some time, namely the check at the end of the race which highlighted how more than once the teams ran below the minimum requirements for a significant stretch of the GP. For safety reasons it was decided to sanction with a warning who was ‘pinched’ the first time and with 3″ penalty on the race time those who broke the rules for the second time. A mess was created, with the teams essentially having to predict at the start of the GP whether their riders would do a GP on an open track or in a group and based on this guess the right pressure to be competitive. The risk of seeing the challenge between Bagnaia and Martin decided by the Stewards was very high: in fact, both showed up in Valencia with a warning. AND Di Giannantonio lost second place and the podium in Cheste for a 0.01 bar infringement for two laps.
For 2024 the rule – for now – remainsbut Davide Tardozzi’s proposal seems valid: “In my opinion it should be measured when you enter the track or the grid. Whether you race first or trail other bikes, if it goes up and down, it shouldn’t be a problem for the rider.”
The Race Direction
Furthermore, the work of the Race Direction cannot go unnoticed. She didn’t make a good impression with the dance about Marc Marquez’s penalty received in Portimao and with the penalties given once and not the other time. We went from one controversy to another, continuously. The “penalty for ambition“, and the “penalty for the next GP in which the driver will take part”. We arrived in Valencia and were inflexible towards Vinales for a puff of oil in the Warm Up, so much so that he lost pole, but we were lenient on the completely wrong entry of Jorge Martin on Marc Marquez. There is no consistency in decisions e the pilots are furious. What’s new on the horizon? None.
Ducati dominance
The world championship was good, there was a world fight until the last race, but… Ducati won 17 of the 20 GPs scheduled. A full-blown domain. 8 out of 22 bikes are manufactured in Borgo Panigale, with the respective teams sharing data on the riders’ setups and riding styles. It is no coincidence that the Ducatis, as they go onto the track, become more and more competitive, to the point of monopolizing the Sunday races. Surely Dorna has its faults with the global vision of the competition. When it seemed clear that Marc Marquez was looking around for 2023, why refuse KTM’s request to create a third Austrian team? In this way Marquez went to Ducati, Honda found itself without a top rider. Last but not least, in December one of the 11 teams – the Aprilia customer team – is without a boss. And there had been rumors about the RNF economic difficulties since at least last summer.
We opted for a concession systemdesigned to help mainly Honda and Yamaha and made to digest by Ducati, with the precise aim of rebalancing the forces on the field.
There are many issues on which we can intervene, unless we rely on the media attention on Marc Marquez’s adventure in Ducati to hide – once again – the dust under the carpet?
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