Motorcycle Racing

Should MotoGP reconsider its emphasis on sprint races?

Bagnaia celebrated his 10th Grand Prix victory of the year in Malaysia on Sunday, but it followed another sprint disappointment that edged Martin closer to the crown

“When you win 10 grands prix and you are still 24 points behind, something is wrong.”

Complaints about a format by a competitor who has failed to master that format must always be read with due caution. They are to be expected. But Francesco Bagnaia may just have a point when it comes to the influence of sprint races on the 2024 MotoGP title battle.

To recap the situation heading into the final round, Bagnaia comes into the Barcelona weekend as a long shot despite having won 10 grands prix to the three triumphs of points leader Jorge Martin. The Spaniard’s advantage can be traced to his seven wins in MotoGP’s sprint races as well as numerous falls for Bagnaia on Saturdays.

To be clear, Bagnaia is making no excuses for his sprint travails. He is honest about those to the point where you have to take his “something is wrong” statement as a little more than sour grapes.

“Jorge was just better on Saturdays this season and we have to say he did a really good job there,” said Bagnaia following his latest Saturday fall in Malaysia. He is also happy to tip his hat to Martin’s ability to find pace with limited or zero preparation time.

“Yesterday Jorge just went straight on track and did a 1m56.996s, just like that,” said Bagnaia with a snap of the fingers as he reflected on Martin’s record-breaking first run in Q2 at Sepang. “The speed with which he can adapt [to set a quick time] is something unbelievable.”

Bagnaia celebrated his 10th Grand Prix victory of the year in Malaysia on Sunday, but it followed another sprint disappointment that edged Martin closer to the crown

Photo by: Dorna

Given that the sprints come earlier in the weekend, when Bagnaia is usually still fine-tuning his package, this phenomenon has been an important factor in Martin’s Saturday points hauls. For one so realistic about the balance of power in the sprints, Bagnaia could arguably have avoided his current situation simply by taking a damage-limitation approach on Saturdays.

With the benefit of hindsight, he would certainly have settled for a few seconds and thirds instead of falling off. But his biggest losses came early in the season, when the picture – including his edge on Sundays – wasn’t quite so clear.

But with all of that said, for 73 of MotoGP’s 75 years, worrying about how to handle sprints was not a skill Bagnaia would have had to master. Winning grands prix – and the occasional TT in the Netherlands…

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