The divide that could mar MotoGP’s sprint race revolution in 2023

Announced last year, MotoGP will implement half-distance sprint races to the grand prix schedule on the Saturday of every round of the 2023 season.

That means there will be a total of 42 races across the campaign – which will be the longest in the series’ history – when accounting for both sprints and the main Sunday contest.

This move was already shrouded in controversy when riders were first made aware that it was definitely happening through reports in the press, with Autosport breaking the sprint race story last August.

Though it was discussed in previous safety commission meetings, the riders were unaware that the plan had been approved and was going to be implemented in 2023.

Since then, numerous questions have been raised about sprint races and the grid has been split on the value of them, as well as how it will impact them from round to round.

One key thing that has arisen in recent weeks, following a report from Autosport, was the fact that teams and riders are yet to come to an agreement over the bonuses they will be paid for winning sprint races.

Salaries in general have been a talking point in MotoGP over the past year, with Joan Mir’s manager Paco Sanchez telling the media at the French GP (just two weeks after Suzuki announced it was quitting MotoGP and Mir’s contract negotiations crumbled to nothing) that a minimum base salary should be implemented by the series.

“This is a big business,” Sanchez said. “For me, this is like tennis and football and other big sports, part of this business should be to the people who are the stars of this business. And MotoGP riders are the stars of this world. So, I think they merit… I don’t know if Dorna, the manufacturers, somebody needs to pay a minimum base salary.

“I don’t say pay them the salary of Marc Marquez, but a minimum base salary because they play with their lives. We forget sometimes, but they are playing with their lives. Some young riders, if you offer them 100,000 euros they sign, or zero and they sign.”

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Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

In the same interview, Sanchez revealed that the contract that Tech3 rider Remy Gardner, who he also manages, signed was “shit”.

This comment was sparked by a debate at the time regarding Speed Up’s ousting of Romano Fenati partway through the 2022 Moto2 season, with a number of riders expressing concerns about contracts they deemed were precarious for riders.

In 2022, the combined salaries of the grid reduced by 19.45% compared to 2019, with 11 riders in 2023 set be earning under six figures (not including any win bonuses that might be written into their contracts).

While it is easy to dismiss top athletes’ grumbles about what they are paid given the wages most normal people earn, MotoGP does pale in comparison to other world sports. But the danger element of MotoGP is something that must be taken seriously when discussing what a rider is owed money-wise, not least with this risk doubling with the advent of sprint races.

MotoGP has shuffled the weekend format around to get rid of the 30-minute FP4 session, which the international race teams’ association (IRTA) said last year was done to keep track time at the same level. But riders argued that the physical and mental exertion of an FP4 session is in no way similar to what they will experience in a sprint race.

Speaking following VR46’s 2023 livery launch, Luca Marini – who will be one of the lesser paid riders on the grid in 2023 – was critical of comments that an increase in races should be welcomed by racers, and pertinently noted that being a MotoGP rider is a year-round job now.

“Sincerely now, it looks like the format is changing, but everyone is just saying ‘OK riders, this new format, you earn the same money, you have to do the same thing because more races means more fun for you. Yay!,” Marini said when asked about the lack of agreement between riders and teams over sprint race bonuses.

“‘So, just have fun. In my time, if we had more races it would just be better’, when you speak with old riders. It’s fantastic because they are not riding now.

Luca Marini, VR46 Racing Team

Photo by: Media VR46

“So, I’m not against them. For sure, I say the same thing. I agree with them, for sure it’s more fun for us because we want to race. It’s incredible to race in MotoGP, and more races is more fun.

“But it’s also our job, it’s our life and it’s our sacrifices during the days because now you are a MotoGP rider 365 days of the year. You cannot have so much free time, you have a lot of stress also. The effort of the new race will be unbelievable.”

Base salaries are not uncommon in sport, with hockey players in the NHL earning $750,000 as the absolute minimum. In the NFL, that figure is $705,000, while in the NBA it’s $925,000. Arguably, base salary figures will be dependent on the overall financial health of a series as well as any salary caps that may exist.

At present, there isn’t a body to fight riders’ corner when it comes to matters of salary. Unlike in Formula 1, which has the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, there is no rider union in MotoGP. Calls for one sprung up last year during the talk about minimum salaries and the nature of contracts, particularly for young riders.

“The teams can do whatever they want,” Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro complained when talking about the subject of base salaries being discussed in safety commission meetings last year. “It’s not fair. It’s fair the teams have an association that protects them, but we feel unprotected. So, it’s not fair.”

Pol Espargaro added: “We have never had a leader with enough concern to create a riders' association. Surely the right one was Valentino Rossi, and although it was discussed many times, he never took the step to take it forward.”

When a question about a riders’ union being set up in MotoGP was put to Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta last year, the Spaniard said he has “no opinion against it,” noting “I don’t know a category where the riders are as listened to and protected as MotoGP”.

Ezpeleta’s response to the subject grew sharper as the media pushed the matter, claiming the rider safety commission is a riders’ union. It’s worth noting that not all riders attend safety commission meetings, which take place on the Friday of each grand prix. Fabio Quartararo is a notable absentee, claiming he doesn’t feel like the riders are listened to.

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

When sprint races were officially confirmed, FIM president Jorge Viegas joked to one journalist that more races would mean more money for the media – a tone deaf comment that perhaps shows MotoGP is potentially out-of-touch with the reality of a vastly increased schedule.

Marini feels MotoGP could offset some of the added strain sprint races will bring to riders by reducing the amount of laps slightly in the main grand prix. But this won’t satisfy the demand for more money from riders for double the work they will be doing in 2023.

While there hasn’t even been the faintest suggestion riders could escalate this matter, standoffs between competitors and series organisers isn’t without precedent.

F1’s FISA-FOCA wars of the early 1980s led to the 1980 Spanish GP and the 1981 Brazilian GP being declared non-championship rounds due to the withdrawal of some teams, while teams also boycotted the 1982 San Marino GP. Outside of motorsport, the NHL endured a much more extreme situation when a labour dispute between the players’ association and the commissioner over the implementation of salary caps led to the entire 2004-05 season being cancelled.

But given the primary reason for sprint races in MotoGP in 2023 is to increase the popularity of the series, at what point do underpaid riders competing in twice as many races for the same money they earned in 2022 and facing twice as much risk reach a breaking point? And indeed, what would that look like without the protection of a proper riders’ union?

These are questions that will have to be faced up to at some point by MotoGP as it enters uncharted waters with sprint races.

While some will point to World Superbikes and its three-race format and perhaps deride MotoGP riders for simply acting spoiled, bear in mind two things: WSBK feature races are shorter than grands prix by at least 10 minutes, and even with two features races and a sprint, WSBK riders will face fewer races than MotoGP riders at 36 versus 42.

MotoGP riders aren’t looking for sympathy, but their desires to be fairly compensated for the stark increase in work they will be doing in 2023 should be taken seriously. It may be a job like no other, but it is just that: a job, and every worker deserves adequate pay conditions.