Next year, MotoGP will have an unprecedented 22-round calendar – which means 44 races, also including the Sprints that were introduced this year.«
In an interview with Cope GP, Gresini rider Álex Márquez argued that the calendar should only have 20 Grand Prix, as is consensual among the riders: ‘As a rider I would say that, including the Sprints, there would be 20 [as the limit]. For us, and we have often said it in the safety commission, it would be the maximum. But it’s going up to 22. They say it’s two more races, but no, it’s four more – because Sprint races aren’t called races for contractual reasons, but they’re races. There’s a start, it’s half the laps and sometimes it’s almost worse than a full race. The ideal would be 20. Formula goes to 24, we go to 22, in Formula 1 they say they want to take some, so let’s see if we take some’.
The Spaniard stressed that, in physical terms, the size of the calendar is already very demanding: ‘Physically, at the end of the season – me with the injury not because I could rest, but it makes mistakes come and especially injuries’.