The case for separate sprint qualifying in MotoGP

Since Liberty Media’s takeover of MotoGP was confirmed earlier this month, one of the championship’s favourite questions has been, ‘what do you think they’ll change?’

It is a given, of course, that change will come. Anyone who has ever worked in a company – in this case Dorna – that has been taken over by another knows that the incoming bosses like to fiddle. Even if they say they won’t. Not that Liberty, which also owns Formula 1, has ever claimed it will leave MotoGP alone.

In fact, there’s already been a whiff of something new – in the press room at least. There have been subtle changes to the makeup of press conferences, a welcome move for those struggling to wring a worthy new quote out of the Marquez brothers or Francesco Bagnaia. Then, in Germany, the first race since the deal closed, there were suddenly two additional press gatherings for team bosses. Where have we seen that before?

The team principals pressers probably didn’t win friends among the media corps, given that these turned out to be an unsubtle platform for the bosses to spew PR-friendly soundbites about MotoGP and its future. With Dorna/Liberty scripting the questions and leaving scant time for actual journalist queries, the gatherings were hardly worth missing one’s lunch for.

But as for changes that will impact the competition and its fans, we’re still in the realms of speculation. One of the most popular topics, however, has inevitably been the weekend format. Particularly the current system under which the same qualifying session dictates both the sprint grid and grand prix.

Could this be something due for a stint under the Liberty microscope?

The Sachsenring weekend provided a case in point, as it happens. Qualifying went ahead in the wet, which somewhat inevitably meant Johann Zarco ended up on the front row. That was fitting enough for the damp race a couple of hours later, but Zarco was completely out of place for the dry contest on Sunday.

Zarco's wet weather prowess earned him a front row slot in the rain-hit Saturday morning qualifying that sets the grid for both the sprint and the grand prix

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

Sure, you can’t legislate for weather-related grid anomalies, nor should you try. They’re fun after all – until you repeat them two days in a row. And you could set up the qualifying system so that anomalies don’t get a double whammy.

Before we go further, this is based on the assumption that sprints are here to stay. As a traditionalist, there is no appeal of adding a half-race to dilute what a nation’s grand prix is about, pollute the record books and take much of the mystery out of Sunday. As a journalist, it is uneasy writing about MotoGP in the sprint era. Is the German Grand Prix the entire meeting, or is it just the Sunday race? If a rider has taken four podiums this year, are we just talking Sundays? And if we’re including Saturdays, then technically it’s not a podium, because it has a medal ceremony… sprints force laborious distinctions and long sentences.

While there must be a significant number of fans who welcome the additional race action, it should be pointed out that the sprints, which usually feature no variety in tyre choice or any wear concerns, tend to be less dramatic than the full-length race.

MotoGP already has something like a qualifying session on a Friday. Only it’s called Practice, and the prize is not a grid slot per se but a direct ticket to Saturday’s Q2 session, although that’s only really a thing at the back end of Practice, unless it’s raining. For anybody other than a die-hard, that probably raises more questions than it answers

What’s more realistic than outright abolition is a reduction in the number of sprints, so that they don’t feature at every MotoGP weekend. This is the F1 approach, of course. And almost by definition, anything we see in F1 is something Liberty is at least open to.

But whether the sprints feature every weekend or not, the question of format remains. Is there a case for aping the F1 concept of a separate qualifying session for the sprint race – potentially on the Friday?

This writer’s reaction is: bring it on. MotoGP already has something like a qualifying session on a Friday. Only it’s called Practice, and the prize is not a grid slot per se but a direct ticket to Saturday’s Q2 session, although that’s only really a thing at the back end of Practice, unless it’s raining. For anybody other than a die-hard, that probably raises more questions than it answers. The system is confusing, and that’s part of the argument for making a change.

MotoGP effectively has unofficial qualifying due to Friday afternoon's practice session rules

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

If you’re going to call something Practice, let it do what it says on the tin. Let it be what practice sessions have been for, well, pretty much all of motorsport’s history. Set-up and track familiarisation in which lap times count for nothing. Like those we have on Friday and Saturday mornings: the sessions named – a clumsy distinction, this – Free Practice.

The current structure smacks of a convoluted attempt to spice things up. Liberty must be looking at this.

So what about binning the Friday afternoon Practice sessions and simply turning them into something shorter and more meaningful in the form of sprint qualifying? And then run the sprint on Saturday morning before the real business of grand prix qualifying.

OK, so this is a copy of F1’s format. But the way F1 does it makes sense. If you must have sprints, at least get it out of the way early in the weekend. It sends the right message about priorities and you don’t end up confusing everyone with overlapping narratives.

The current MotoGP model does that last bit very well. Qualifying comes in a frantic blur after Free Practice 2 on Saturday morning, with no time for any build of anticipation. It’s over before you know it – and it gets next to no press coverage because the riders don’t speak to media until after the sprint, which then inevitably hijacks the headlines.

So, back to playing the role of Liberty Media bosses for a moment. With the sprint done on Saturday morning, you can then have a proper grand prix qualifying on Saturday afternoon. And by ‘proper’ it would abolish the Q1 and Q2 distinction in favour of a single old-fashioned session with everyone included. One that builds to a crescendo.

Reaction to qualifying is redundant given it is lost to post-sprint race focus on Saturday

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

The current way really does feel contrived. We’re racing for a world championship and spending a lot of money here. Competitors deserve more than a rushed 15 minutes, in which an ill-timed yellow flag can have a disproportionate influence on your weekend. Especially as these, like everything else in the current qualifying system, will affect a rider twice over.

Nor is there any reason to subject the racers to the stresses of Q1 just to generate some ill-conceived ‘show’. Because qualifying, with its impenetrable colour codes, pluses, minuses, sector times and glimpses of a quarter of the pole lap, is really hard to make exciting for TV anyway. At least if you give it a decent hour, riders might spread their efforts through the session… you might even be able to broadcast all of a hot lap now and then.

Not many of the riders would lament the loss of the Q1/Q2 deal, nor the addition of more time to really nail a representative lap. As for separate sprint and grand prix qualifying, there is unlikely to be any objection to the principle. Sprint qualifying will effectively become ‘match practice’ for the main qualifying session a day later. And that, in turn, will be a second chance – usually a welcome opportunity for most!

To make sure spectators at the track aren’t robbed under the new dispensation, I would lengthen the Free Practice session on Friday to at least an hour and also extend the Sunday morning warm-up to 30 minutes. The current 10-minute runaround is frankly laughable, but a proper warm-up can do a great deal to build anticipation. It’s also long enough for a couple of set-up experiments that could shake up the form book one last time before the pinnacle of the weekend: the grand prix itself.

Perhaps MotoGP should focus on putting value and hype back on the main event of a race weekend

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz