LCR team boss Lucio Cecchinello says slim tyre resources mean MotoGP’s revamped qualifying sessions will not be as dangerous as some fear – and could in fact be more strategically interesting.
The former racer, who is also president of teams’ association IRTA, provided some fresh perspectives on the hotly-debated 2027 format during a world feed interview on Thursday.
Under the new structure, both the Friday Sprint Qualifying and Saturday’s Q1 will feature 22 riders gunning for times in the same 15-minute session, with potential safety and traffic implications.
But Cecchinello highlighted that the tyre allocation for the revamped race weekends had already been considered – and that the track may not be as busy in qualifying as some have suggested.
“This will be managed by the fact that the number of tyres available are not unlimited” said Cecchinello when asked about the stressful implications for riders. “There will be just one set of tyres for the 15 minutes of sprint qualifying, which is, you know, already limiting the number of fast laps.”
That contrasts with the current Friday situation, in which riders routinely take new tyres more than once late in the Practice session, which is effectively a first round of qualifying under the current format.
“So we will see strategies where, you know, teams are waiting before going out or the teams are deciding to go out immediately, you know, to avoid any potential risk of getting yellow flags.
Johann Zarco, Team LCR Honda
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images
“So I believe that, you know, this will be also be thrilling – how teams will manage the strategy with their own riders.”
Saturday’s allocation will also be cut, said Cecchinello, making the use of resources across the two sessions more interesting – particularly given that Q2 is only open to those who make the top 10 in Q1.
“And again, in Q1 and Q2, riders will have only three sets of tyres, instead of four sets of tyres like we have now.”
The changes to the format were an initiative on the part of the teams, and Cecchinello’s remarks underlined that they had been carefully considered.
That theme also emerged in his remarks about the removal of the warm-up session, which will be replaced by an increased window for sighting laps ahead of going to the grid.
“You know, nowadays, MotoGP tyres and [whatever else] are very specifically made for a certain range of temperature. And then we realised that, you know, 9:40 in the morning is not the same track temperature that we have on the race [afternoon].
“Internally we discussed, you know, also with engineers who work for manufacturers. They say that basically the current format of the warm-up is not really useful for doing any checks, but just a functional check.
“So they decided to make it more easy for everyone, you know. That just the extension of a sighting laps will be better.”
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