Francesco Bagnaia has provided a radical suggestion for the new qualifying system under discussion for 2027.
On Friday at the Austrian Grand Prix, Motorsport.com revealed that MotoGP is working on plans to separate qualifying for sprint races and grands prix. Under the current system, Saturday morning’s qualifying session determines the grid for both the afternoon sprint and the Sunday grand prix.
While the exact nature of the format change remains under discussion, Bagnaia said that the grand prix grid should be set according to the fastest laps in the sprint.
“For me, the best could be that the lap time of sprint race would be the grid of the Sunday race. Like they do in Supersport. For me, it’s a clear idea.
“It’s clever because in a sprint race, you prepare for the Sunday race,” continued the Ducati factory rider. “So the lap times of Saturday could help to make an improvement. Because the same qualifying for two races is a problem.
“Sometimes you can crash in qualifying. Having a second chance with the lap time of the sprint could be good.”
Bagnaia, who was in talkative mood after an encouraging ride to sixth place in the sprint race in Austria, also sees the system as an elegant way of eliminating a competitive session from the weekend. The current set of rules requires riders to make the top 10 in Friday practice just to qualify for the Q2 pole position battle on Saturday morning. This, in turn, ensures riders face a minimum of two ‘timed’ sessions and two races.
The amount of competitive track time has been criticised in some quarters, with some in the paddock identifying it as a contributing factor to accidents and injuries. At this race last season, two-time MotoGP champion Casey Stoner came out strongly against making riders go for times in Friday practice.
“I just hope that they will not increase the number of sessions because Saturday is already a very tough day for us,” Bagnaia stressed.
“For me, it’s also not correct to put the qualifying with the practice session. So we need a balance on that.”
Bagnaia’s fellow Italian, Luca Marini, expected little more than a re-labelling of the current sessions when asked for his response to news of the planned changes to qualifying.
“At the end, practice is a qualifying, yeah?” said Marini. “So we will have maybe one qualifying on Friday afternoon and one, like now, on Saturday morning. Same as now.”
The factory Honda rider expressed hope that riders might be involved in the conversation around the new format.
“We are open to any change that can be a little bit better for the riders, for the manufacturers, and better for the show. So let’s talk about it.”
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