MADRID:
MotoGP’s dash format is now not an experiment however its Chief Sporting Officer Carlos Ezpeleta is aware of it stays one of many championship’s most contentious speaking factors, whilst TV audiences soared this season to look at the shorter format.
Launched within the 2023 season, the half-length races have turbo-charged tv audiences with a viewership improve of 26% on Saturdays whereas general TV audiences are up 9%, in line with figures printed by MotoGP.
Furthermore, the 22-round season introduced 3.6 million followers to race tracks, breaking 9 attendance data as MotoGP celebrated one in all its most memorable seasons but when Ducati’s Marc Marquez returned to the summit along with his seventh crown.
To the outsider, it appears to be like like a win-win: extra races, extra viewers, more cash. To the riders, nevertheless, 22 Grand Prix races and 22 sprints is a special proposition that leads to a a lot heavier workload.
Components One has dash races solely at choose circuits and not more than six a season, however Ezpeleta left little room for ambiguity about its future as MotoGP tries to strike a steadiness between sporting custom and accessibility for brand spanking new audiences.
“We expect having the identical format each weekend is de facto essential to our sport, particularly in a section the place we’re so centered on capturing new followers,” Ezpeleta advised Reuters.
“Having a sport that is simple to grasp, that is the identical each weekend… The identical factors are on the desk each weekend. It offers that consistency of a world championship and we expect that is crucial.”
Ezpeleta’s defence of sprints comes regardless of persistent considerations from riders over the dilution of the normal Sunday Grand Prix and damage danger with fewer follow periods.
However Ezpeleta rejected the concept sprints undermine MotoGP’s marquee Sunday races.
“I do not see that, the factors distinction is so massive,” he mentioned.
“It was all the time going to take a while for the riders and groups to get their head across the format of the weekend, the place you wish to push and the place you wish to be extra passive.
