MotoGP News: Former Champion Slams Sport Changes - 'Too Easy'

Saajan Jogia | Nov 13, 2024

Apr 14, 2024; Austin, TX, USA; A view of the riders as they go through turn one in the first lap of the MotoGP Grand Prix of The Americas at Circuit of The Americas. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Former MotoGP champion Casey Stoner has severely criticized the sprint race format that was introduced last season, calling out the influence it has over world championship outcomes when the deciding factor should be the long-distance Grands Prix that happen on Sunday.

This year, Francesco Bagnaia trails Jorge Martin by 24 points going into the Solidarity Grand Prix of Barcelona season finale. Although Bagnaia has won 10 of 19 Sunday races to Martin's three, Martin’s consistent sprint success gives him a strong chance to clinch his first championship. He will secure the title if he wins Saturday’s sprint in Barcelona.

Stoner, the 2007 and 2011 MotoGP champion with Ducati and Honda, has called out the sprint format for the same reason, arguing that it should be Sunday's Grand Prix that decides the championship result. He argued that the sprint races should not award points to the riders, and criticized the premier class of motorcycling for making bikes that are "too easy" to ride. Speaking to GPOne, he said:

“Motorsport is supposed to be the best riders on the most difficult platform to drive or ride, and at the moment MotoGP is too easy.

“They don’t have enough control over the bike. The engineers are making too big of a difference.

“Then they put the sprint race which reduces the amount of track time that they get to concentrate for the long race.

“We are not supposed to have a world championship with miniatures, it’s supposed to be an endurance event.

“It’s basically like trying to say ‘okay, we’re going to have a marathon, now 10 laps is not a marathon, it’s 43 kilometres!’

“It’s gruelling, very hard work. So we need to have stability, the world championship is supposed to be over a long distance race.

“You can’t have people that are very good over a short period of time, they can run the soft tyre. You have to think about race distance.

“Also, you [should not] get points for these sort of sprint races because the points are supposed to come on Sunday when it is the main race.

“It’s very difficult to set a bike up. So that you can be focused throughout the entire race.

“At the moment, we are putting such focus on one lap, it’s very important to get through the Q2 from the first practice.

“So this stops everybody from thinking about race set-up, getting everything done for that.

“Then, I think, this is why we see on a Sunday that there’s quite a big spread between the riders because not everybody’s ready for the race pace.” [sic]

Speaking on the kind of effect electronics and aero have on present MotoGP bikes, Stoner said:

“In general, I think the MotoGP bike is now one of the easiest motorcycles to ride in the world.”