It was a Sunday dedicated to the MotoGP series for a lot of motorsport fans, with Formula 1 engines off and while waiting for the final triple-header that will close the 2024 Formula 1 championship, starting with the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which is scheduled to take place at the 6.2-kilometre Las Vegas Strip Circuit in Nevada, USA, on Saturday, November 23. Nevertheless, yesterday is an important day for motorsport, as the title for the top motorcycle category was decided at the Montmelò circuit in Catalunya, during the solidarity race chosen by Dorna to replace the beleaguered Valencia event. Our most loyal readers might wonder why we are addressing an apparently “off-topic” subject. The reason is as simple as it is intriguing, but let us proceed step by step to understand the reasoning.
Liberty Media, the owner of Formula 1, has taken a significant step toward acquiring MotoGP, submitting a request for approval to the European Commission last Thursday. The formalization and completion of the purchase by the end of the year, as indicated by outgoing chief executive officer Greg Maffei during a meeting with shareholders, should soon become a reality. To finance this significant acquisition, valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Liberty Media sold a substantial stake in Formula 1 last summer.
Greg Maffei confirmed that the financing for the acquisition is secured, with the only remaining hurdle being regulatory approval from the European Commission. In the future, the closeness between the two categories could become very evident. Returning to current events, yesterday Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia competed for the world championship crown on the Catalan track. The most striking statistic of this season concerns the number of wins in the regular Sunday race: the Italian rider has claimed 10 victories compared to the Spaniard’s 3.
Nonetheless, the Spanish champion from the Pramac team led the championship ahead of the race weekend and only needed a few points yesterday to be crowned world champion in the premier class of motorcycle racing for the first time in his career. This paradox has essentially arisen for two reasons: the excessive number of unforced errors by the Italian rider throughout the season and Jorge Martin’s ability to capitalize on his explosiveness in the Saturday Sprint Races, the mini-races that have now been a fixture in the category for some time.
There are therefore some potential risks regarding the synergy between Formula 1 and MotoGP. Unlike Formula 1, in MotoGP Sprint Races are an integral part of every race weekend on the world championship calendar, effectively becoming a sort of specialty in their own right. Now that the commercial rights of the two disciplines, namely F1 and MotoGP, will be held by the same entity, it is likely that the entertainment model offered to the public could become more uniform. In Formula 1, Sprint Races have not seemed to generate much interest since their experimental debut in 2021. Since then, the number of sprint weekends has increased from three to six, and the weekend format has been adjusted.
This was achieved by making Saturday’s “mini-race” independent through the introduction of the Shootout qualifying session, which has been designed to set the starting grid for the standalone 100 kilometer event. The next step could involve expanding the number of weekends featuring Sprint Races, with the aim of reducing the number of free practice sessions in favor of sessions where something significant is always at stake. Essentially, the focus is on filling the schedule with events that have meaningful outcomes, rather than free practice sessions considered “boring” by Liberty Media, during which teams test updates on their cars and accumulate laps.
This situation is often indecipherable for various fans due to the differing fuel loads used by the teams throughout the sessions. However, it is MotoGP itself, hoping to expand its popularity with Liberty Media’s backing, that demonstrates the potential paradoxes of the Sprint model, as seen this year. Regardless of the different scoring systems between MotoGP and Formula 1, after Pecco Bagnaia failed to secure the title on Sunday, an unusual final outcome has been seen: the rider from Italy, with 11 Sunday victories, has been defeated by the Sprint specialist and Sunday “steady performer,” Jorge Martin.
The hope is that Formula 1 does not permanently adopt the sprint format, as MotoGP sends a strong and clear message: consistency in the Saturday mini-race can outweigh the skills of those excelling in the traditional (and longer) Sunday race.
— see video above —
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