MotoGP preview: five reasons not to miss the 75th year of two-wheeled Grand Prix racing

1. The biggest format change in the sport’s history with Sprints on the Saturday

In 1949, on the Isle of Man, the first ever premier class Grand Prix lasted an exhausting 3hr 2min (won by Harold Daniell on a Norton). Now MotoGP is stretching beyond the traditional Sunday GP affair of about 70 miles or 40 minutes to include Saturday Sprints at all 21 rounds.

The Sprints will be half the distance of the Sunday Grand Prix outing and will count for world championship points. The Sprints will exist in their own statistics vacuum, so a rider could finish outside the MotoGP world title contention but be crowned a Saturday king.

MotoGP has taken this step to increase the impact of the sport for TV audiences and those who attend live (there were 2.4 million of them in 2022). Unlike Formula 1, which runs Saturday sprint races at only six of the 24 dates, MotoGP has gone for a wholesale change. Series promoter Dorna Sports is keen to emphasise that the pilot scheme could be adjusted or moulded but, so far, there is a swell of support for the Sprints. The difference in actual track time for the teams and riders will be negligible although there is concern at the extra mental, physical and logistical stress involved in competitive racing compared with the past qualification schedule, and the fact that the protagonists will have to arrive at each circuit sprinting from Friday morning with only two practice sessions to get their machines set up.

“I think it is a clear win for the sport and the championship but we need the first ones to be safe,” said Dorna’s sporting director Carlos Ezpeleta during an exclusive interview. “Of course there is a lot to adjust in terms of the timetable and the work to make Saturdays go like clockwork because it is demanding and it’s new. I’m sure it will take all of us some time but I’m not too worried about it. What I am worried about is safe racing, and riders risking their participation for the Sunday event because it is out of our reach, let’s say. I hope they will be prudent.

“I think we are at a time where we have to invest in the sport and its visibility and I think the Sprint will fit perfectly for that,” he adds. “I think everyone is aware that attendance at the circuits on Saturdays will be affected with this 20-minute format that is easy to understand. It should act as a hook during Saturday to engage fans for Sunday. Plus, we have already agreed with some TV broadcasters that it will be free to air in some territories.”

Fans and spectators won’t be the only winners. The more explosive riders on the MotoGP grid and those less skilled at tyre preservation will soon be racking up the points, headlines and social media hits thanks to two chequered flags per Grand Prix.

2. MotoGP going bigger - and back to TV streaming

MotoGP’s transition follows a trend in motorsports where promoters are trying to offer more bang for the buck, altering the agenda to accommodate public presentations of the 22 riders in an attempt to break the distance between the stars and the fans.

“I think it will be non-stop; the transformation of sport,” Ezpeleta said. “It must be something that appeals to young people and that the general public will understand. This is what maybe all sporting properties want to do. More sports are competing against each other for eyeballs on a screen, it might be sport content on social media or a cat jumping out of a window. Anything on a screen is competition. It is definitely ‘transform or die’ right now.”

In contrast to F1, MotoGP has a superior entertainment product but lacks the fanfare. At the second and last pre-season test in Portugal last week 18 riders were separated by one second. MotoGP has parity, unpredictability and fascinating technical innovations filtering between the stringent rulebook to cap costs. F1 has surged in popularity in certain markets partly thanks to hit docuseries Drive to Survive and shrewd social media activity which often means the stories around the teams and personalities gather more attention than the racing itself. Dorna is aware of the imbalance for its sport.

“I think for our star product, from 13.30 to 15.00 on a Sunday and the lead-up and lead-out, there is little work to do there,” Ezpeleta said. “We have a great product; we just need to work on what goes on around the events and leading up to the events themselves, as well as showcasing the riders’ personalities.

“We have a lot of values that other motorsports would kill for, which is the excitement, the risk, the danger, the heroes, the thrills, the action and now we need to work on the storytelling, what MotoGP as a brand represents and how people perceive it. We ask ourselves: what are the first three attributes we want to display as a sport and as entertainment? Everything comes into play: from the first poster you see, how our Apps are designed, our narratives in press releases, content and commentators.”

Dorna fashioned its own Drive to Survive in 2022 with MotoGP Unlimited but it suffered a botched roll-out on Amazon Prime as the riders spoke in their native tongue but with unremovable dubbing. It was soon corrected. The eight-part product was slick and revealing but also formulaic and lacked the storytelling nuance of F1’s effort. There could be a re-birth on the horizon however. Presence on a high-profile streaming platform is now part of a promoter’s arsenal and has been seized by sports like tennis, cycling and golf.

“It is something we have to have and probably need,” said Ezpeleta. “It is all about creating characters and letting the fans know who the riders are and their personalities by going away from the international [race] TV feed. Also, the team managers; that’s where Drive to Survive has showcased a range of personalities. We have some great ones in the MotoGP paddock and some very excitable people.”

3. Italy’s best motorcycle racer since Valentino Rossi

Pecco Bagnaia overcame a 91-point deficit to defending world champion Fabio Quartararo last season to become Italian legend Ducati’s first world champion since 2007, the first Italian victor since Valentino Rossi in 2009 and the first Italian winner on an Italian bike in exactly five decades.

The 25-year-old from Turin is one of only eight MotoGP riders to have won Grands Prix in Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP categories and 2023 will be his fifth campaign in the premier class after winning the 2018 Moto2 title. Bagnaia launched a second-half season blitz of five wins and eight podiums in 10 rounds to achieve the milestone on the factory version of the Desmosedici that is now considered the best all-round motorcycle in the series. As in 2022, there will be eight of them on the 22-bike grid.

Bagnaia, who has swapped his personal #63 for the #1 plate that traditionally denotes the world champion (and a sight that hasn’t been seen in MotoGP since 2012), has been in ominous form during pre-season tests as Ducati and the Lenovo team have merely tweaked the title-winning package.

At the Algarve International Circuit in Portugal – the scene of the opening round on March 25-26 – Bagnaia topped the timesheets and smashed the lap-record. “This year he seems like a different man, a more confident man,” said Red Bull KTM’s Jack Miller, his ex-teammate from 2022. “I followed him for a very short time, and that's a guy that has a lot of confidence in his motorcycle, for sure.”

“We can say that we are ready at 100% to start the season,” Bagnaia said after the test. “I feel very good on everything, on braking, entry, corner speed. So in this moment everything is working perfectly.”

While a firm favourite, Bagnaia’s turnaround experience from 2022, the closeness of MotoGP and the curveball of the Sprints in 2023 mean he was cautious with his optimism. “If I can recover all those points, all the others can!” he said in reference to last summer. “So, we keep calm and work step by step. I'm very happy that we are moving in my direction in terms of what I like on my bike. We lost a bit of top speed but we gain a lot of handling so that is the more important thing.”

4. Ducati versus the rest; but it will be close

With contemporary and year-old versions of the Desmosedici spread among four teams, last season Ducati took 12 wins from 20 races, as well as 32 podium finishes from a possible 60. In the two pre-season tests in Malaysia and Portugal Ducati-mounted riders filled seven and eight respectively of the first nine spots on the timesheets.

Ducati’s lease-and-support structure has led to a mass of development data for the factory in Borgo Panigale on the edge of Bologna and has allowed Ducati Corse general director Gigi Dall’Igna and his team to sculpt a bike that can accommodate a range of rider styles and sizes.

World champion Bagnaia and 2022 surprise contender Enea Bastianini ride the factory GP23 Desmosedici, with the Mooney VR46 and Gresini Racing teams using the triumphant GP22 bike.

So 2023 could be the most dominant season yet for the Italian firm, which will also complement its MotoGP authority by providing its electric V21L for the battery-powered Enel MotoE World Cup that will run at eight Grands Prix. For the first time since Ducati returned to MotoGP in 2003 it will be present in two classes.

Ezpeleta commented on this domination: “Ducati, I think all would agree, have done a fantastic job and built an amazing bike. Honda and Yamaha were very understanding about the Ducati situation with all the technical rules that went on from the early 2000s and the concessions that helped Ducati be where they are now. Once they had a great bike I think they have been very smart about how they negotiated with independent teams and every two bikes you have are two bikes less for the competition. They offer a great package. I don’t know how long that will continue.”

MotoGP suffered the shock loss of Suzuki as a constructor in 2022 but gained a new brand in the form of Spanish marque GASGAS for 2023. Aprilia was the most-improved manufacturer in 2022 and now has four bikes in action instead of two.

Honda has had development hiccups but boast arguably the greatest rider of all time, Marc Marquez, in its ranks for 2023 and 2024. 2021 world champion Yamaha is down to a two-rider representation but a fresh engine for its perennially underpowered M1 means it could attract interest from satellite teams for 2024.

“I know and feel that Yamaha understands a second team is a great asset both on the track and also in terms of development,” said Ezpeleta. “The independent teams are more competitive than ever and that’s great, and those teams will also be subtracting points from riders that will be in the title hunt. Ducati are doing a great job and it’s a free market but now we are also starting to think about the 2027 regulations [window] and everybody is going to be chasing ‘red’. It will be interesting to see how it pans out.”

5. New territories, new flavours

MotoGP will be on the road from the end of March to a climate-defying conclusion in Valencia near the end of November, taking in 18 countries including first-time visits to India and Kazakhstan. Both fixtures have been surrounded by rumours regarding their upkeep or readiness and financial backing but, at the time of writing the July trip for round nine to Kazakhstan and the September fixture for the 14th Grand Prix of the year remain intact.

India, in particular, is another ripe ground for MotoGP, one year after the series inaugurated the Mandalika International Street Circuit on the island of Lombok and ignited one of the most vibrant hubs for the sport in Indonesia.

“We are confident we will be in both those countries and it is part of the globalisation of MotoGP,” Ezpeleta said on the unexplored nations. “India has huge potential for everybody involved in the paddock because it is the biggest two-wheel market in the world and an incredible economy that is growing and developing. There is a lot to gain from MotoGP being there.

“Kazakhstan is a country that will impress the paddock and the MotoGP family. Almaty is a great city. The calendar is one of the things that continues to grow quite a bit in the last years with interest from new countries wanting to join MotoGP. We know in Southeast Asia MotoGP is a huge property and they are very interested in us, South America as well, and that is where we need to invest. To create a platform for motorcycle racing to have riders from those places in the future would be very beneficial.”

The Grande Premio de Portugal at the Algarve International Circuit opens the championship on March 25-26. Comprehensive coverage of every round can be seen on BT Sports/TNT Sports. ITV4 will screen a Monday evening highlights programme from every race, with live coverage of the Italian (June 11-12) and British rounds on ITV1. The British Grand Prix is at Silverstone on August 4-6.