MotoGP has “no vision” to expand calendar beyond 22 races

MotoGP is not looking to expand its calendar beyond 22 races in the future, and is committed to ensuring the presence of the Moto2 and Moto3 classes at all events, according to MotoGP Sporting Director Carlos Ezpeleta.

Since MotoGP’s calendar began expanding beyond the 18 races it stayed at for much of the 2010s, concerns have grown over the length of the schedule and the sustainability of a 20-plus-race season.

These worries were further fueled by the addition of Sprints in 2023 that mean MotoGP riders are now facing over 40 race starts per season.

With Liberty Media taking over a majority stake in Dorna earlier this year, and considering the expansion the F1 calendar has seen since Liberty bought the premier car racing series in 2016, there seemed to be a possibility that the MotoGP calendar could expand further beyond 2025’s record 22-race season.

However, Ezpeleta has denied that the championship is looking to increase its quantity of races per season.

“We don’t have any vision at all of going over and above 22 races,” Ezpeleta confirmed, speaking to British MotoGP broadcaster TNT Sports on Saturday at the Indonesian Grand Prix.

Rumours began circling ahead of the beginning of the Asian leg of the 2025 MotoGP season in Japan which suggested that the Moto2 and Moto3 classes would be further de-prioritised in the MotoGP paddock to the extent that they would not travel to races outside Europe.

Ezpeleta, though, confirmed that Moto2 and Moto3 will continue to be at every race, with the condition that the teams themselves want that to be the case.

“All the conversations we’ve ever had with Moto3 and Moto2 teams, they’ve always said it’s essential for them to be at every single event, and we would never proactively not want them at an event,” he said. 

“It would be a different conversation if the Moto3 and Moto2 teams came and said ‘We can no longer make 22 races’. That would be a different conversation and we would try to help them stay at all events. 

“But by no means is it our target for them to not be with us at every event.”

However, Ezpeleta, who in Japan said that Moto2 and Moto3 are still "intrinsic" parts of MotoGP, indicated that there will be changes coming to how Moto2 and Moto3 teams are allocated space in the paddock, suggesting that none will have any presence in the pit garages.

“It’s become quite obvious that the MotoGP teams need more space for their operations just because of how big this sport [has become],” he said.

“Of course the facilities of where we are are the ones where we are. When we come to somewhere new we can do a lot there, but, when we’re racing at a lot of the circuits where we’re racing, we have to adapt. 

“In many circuits, a lot of the Moto3 and Moto2 teams are already in tents. 

“Our idea is to, one, improve those tents so they have a better working space; two, make it more fair, because I think in places where you have some in tents and some in the pit lane it actually [could be considered] even an unfair advantage sporting-wise. 

“The reality is that we want to build on the presence of the paddock, magnify the value that it has to be here, and that will probably mean reshuffling a number of things, but Moto2 and Moto3 will of course have better working space and will have the same presence as they have now.”