Calendar, riders and new rules

The road motorcycle world championship tends to be more dramatic than Formula 1 thanks to more frequent overtaking. Exciting spectacle, a number of often contact fights, three categories and tough guys who often climb back into the saddle even after a dramatic fall. Add to that the hostesses on the starting grid and suddenly it becomes clear why MotoGP is so popular with fans all over the world.

Last season was exciting until the last race, when the Italian Francesco Bagnaia took his first world title after the Valencia Grand Prix. But most importantly, after fifteen long years Ducati won the championship, the Italian manufacturer’s endless wait is over!

Apart from that, it was relatively stable last year. That is, at least until Suzuki made a shocking decision to leave the championship and 2020 world champion Joan Mir and his team-mate Álex Rins had to look for new engagements. And also before the management decided that starting in 2023, MotoGP will also have sprint races along the lines of Formula 1, but they will be a part of every race weekend without exception!

The sprints will always be on Saturday, will take place over half the number of laps of the main race on Sunday and will be awarded half the points. While it will be another interesting race for the fans, the drivers are not so enthusiastic. “If the sprint was run from time to time like in the formula, it could be interesting. But every Saturday… A lot of circuits like Assen or Mugello are physically demanding and we are completely exhausted after the races. I think it’s a bad idea,” commented Fabio Quartararo, the 2021 MotoGP world champion, on the change.

For the first time since 2006, Qatar will not be the first event of the season, instead starting the season in Portugal at the rugged Portimao circuit. Finland, whose race was also canceled last season, was eliminated from the calendar, and the riders will not show up in Aragon either. Races in Kazakhstan and India are new.

We are very much looking forward to the French Grand Prix, which will take place on May 14. It will be the 1000th jubilee Grand Prix in the history of MotoGP! And of course we are also curious about the two new businesses in the calendar. The inaugural GP of Kazakhstan is scheduled for July 9 at the new Sokol International RaceTrack circuit, while the Buddh International circuit in India is already known from the first editions, where MotoGP will be held for the first time on September 24. Overall, it is the 74th and 75th MotoGP venue. The Qatar Grand Prix will then take place as the penultimate event of the season.

The MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 classes will compete in all races in 2023.

The first official pre-season test of the year has already taken place in Sepang, Malaysia, and everyone will meet again in Portugal at the Algarve circuit just two weeks before the start of the season for a two-day test. That will be March 11-12.

There have been a number of minor rule changes for the 2023 season, but the most significant, which will have a massive impact on the championship, are the aforementioned sprint races on Saturday.

The organizers are trying to make the show more exciting, the sprint will be run at half the distance of Sunday’s race and half the points will be awarded. The starting grid for the sprint will then be decided by the qualification, which is held on Saturday morning.

Points will be awarded from first to ninth place, with the result having no effect on the grid for the main grand prize. The sprint race therefore does not determine the order on the starting grid of the Grand Prix race, as is the case, for example, in the World Championship of Superbikes or in Formula 1. The results of the sprint will be counted separately in the statistics for the main race.

Of course, sprint races also necessarily mean a new time format for racing weekends.

Another interesting innovation is tire pressure monitoring. It was quite a topic last year because Michelin, as the tire supplier for the championship, set minimum pressures for the races, and as it turned out, many teams did not adhere to them. However, there was no chance to check it. And according to insiders, it could mean a slowdown of up to a second per lap for some stables!

On the contrary, it could speed up thanks to modified aerodynamics, although the improvement of the fairings on the front part of the motorcycle is limited to only one change per season. One design can be homologated for the beginning of the season, the other is allowed throughout the year. Thus, you can only race in two versions during the season. The organizers want to keep costs down because aerodynamic development is very expensive. And they also don’t want to favor KTM, which has already managed to use its ties to Red Bull in cooperation with the F1 team in Milton Keynes during the development of aerodynamics.

Engine development was frozen for the 2023 season. While manufacturers can fit new engines at the start of the season, these designs must be homologated before the first race and cannot be unsealed during the year – except for safety reasons and approved by the technical director. So they are still four-stroke engines with atmospheric filling with a volume of 1,000 cm3. Motorcycles can reach a maximum speed well over 350 km/h.

Suzuki’s surprising decision to withdraw from MotoGP races caused several rider moves in the Honda, KTM and Ducati stables.

There is only one newcomer in the 2023 season in the form of reigning Moto2 World Champion Augusto Fernandez, but otherwise it was a decent line-up. Of course, Ducati kept Francesco Bagnaia, then signed Enea Bastianini from the Gresini satellite team, who had already managed to shine with four race wins.

Bastianini then replaces Jack Miller, who after five years as a Ducati rider moves to the KTM factory team alongside Brad Binder.

Yamaha fielded an unchanged line-up and will have just two bikes on the grid this year as its originally satellite RNF team switched to Aprilia. And speaking of RNF, there is a completely new cast, Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez came from KTM.

The factory Honda team will then try to break their lean period and six-time world champion Marc Márquez will be partnered by Suzuki’s Joan Mir. At LCR, Álex Rins joined Honda as partner to Takaaki Nakagami.

Rins took Alex Marquez’s place and younger brother Marco moved to Bastianini’s place at the Gresini Ducati team. Fabio Di Giannantonio remains a Gresini rider, with the VR46 and Pramac Ducati line-ups unchanged for.

Just like Formula 1, MotoGP is not a problem to watch on TV. That is, if you have paid Sport1 and Sport2 programs. Then, of course, there are still fine streams, but the best and most reliable is of course the online channel of Dorna itself, the organizer of the motorcycle world championship. For 30 euros (700 CZK) per month, you get not only live broadcasts, but also exclusive footage, statistics and access to the archive. If you’re an ardent fan, there’s basically no other way.

In any case, it is still true that seeing MotoGP with your own eyes is an experience. And until recently, you didn’t have to cross the border for that. But we all know how it turned out in Brno, and let’s face it, the return of MotoGP to the Masaryk circuit would be tantamount to a miracle. The nearest destinations are the Sachsenring in Germany or Spielberg in Austria, and a fantastic atmosphere awaits you at all the races on the Apennine Peninsula.

Ticket prices are significantly more favorable than in Formula 1, for example, you will pay less than 100 euros (2,350 CZK) for a Sunday entry to Spielberg. Sunday entry to the German Sachsenring will cost at least 92 euros (2150 CZK).