Pedro Acosta warns 2027 MotoGP Sprint qualifying format will "shorten careers"

Pedro Acosta has come down firmly against MotoGP’s new 2027 race weekend format, warning of increased stress, greater injury risk and the loss of Sunday warm-up.

After using one qualifying to set the grid for both races since Sprints were introduced in 2023, MotoGP will add a separate Sprint qualifying on Friday, at the expense of practice time.

Saturday qualifying will then set the Grand Prix grid, with every rider taking part in Q1 and the fastest 12 progressing to Q2.

Acosta believes the extra high-risk is the wrong direction for a championship that already features a Sprint at all 22 rounds.

"We have no choice"

“We have no choice, for this it don't really matter what we think about it,” Acosta said at Mandalika on Thursday.

“But it will be a really tough year, because you know how much stress a rider has during a MotoGP weekend, because many times the weekend starts already on Wednesday with pre-events and all these things.

“We already have many sessions that we have to risk everything, like PR, qualifying, sprint, and main race, already four. And we have 22 [times] two [races], because we have every weekend a sprint race.

“For this, I don't know if it will be the best thing to make a sprint qualifying on Friday with 22 guys on track, Q1 with 22 guys again, Q2, sprint race, and main race.

“I understand this [new] format if we have [only] half of the sprint races. But the problem is that we have many races already. If you check all the list of the riders, there are not many that don't have an injury during the whole season.

“For this, I think this will be even worse. Also, to have no warm-up, I don't know if it will be the cleverest thing if somebody crashes on Saturday to check that all the bike is working fine and like it should be.”

"Your Sunday's done already"

MotoGP’s ten-minute Sunday warm-up will disappear in 2027, replaced by a ten-minute pre-race window for multiple sighting laps.

But Acosta believes that will not provide the same opportunity to check the bike, build rhythm and bring everything up to temperature before the Grand Prix.

“Also because you don't make a full lap [doing sighting laps]. Minimum in warm-up, okay, you have the same 10 minutes, but you are getting the pace, you are getting the rhythm, everything is getting the temperature. The bike is getting ready for the race. 

"10 minutes before, if you go to the grid and something's wrong, your Sunday's done already. For this, I don't know, I'm not so happy, but like I say, we have no choice.”

"We are not racing cars"

The Red Bull Ring winner, who will leave KTM to join Marc Marquez at Ducati in 2027, believes the physical consequences of crashes need to be considered when adding even more high-pressure sessions.

“We are risking a lot already. We are not racing cars. When we crash, even if it's a small one, it's our body that touches the ground and not the cockpit. For this, I think we should think about it.

“We are risking already too much. I understand the format if we have just half of the sprint races, but the problem is that we have 22. I mean, it's impossible that, risking five times 100% every weekend, you don't get an injury. It's no way. It's normal that the guys get injured.”

“Take out risky sessions”

Acosta said he is broadly happy with the current qualifying system and agreed that using Friday Practice results to determine the Sprint grid would have been a simpler alternative.

“I'm quite happy about the practice sessions that we have now,” he said. “I'm quite happy that if you are in the 10 first, you go to Q2, or if not, then you go to Q1, and then you have two guys that have another chance.

“I understand if the practice session that we have now, the result is the sprint qualifying.

“Because we already risk, the only thing that we have like a free practice time, and then we make the time attacks at the end. But you have time to work on the bike and see what is going on.

“We should start to think to take out risky sessions and not put even more, because with 20 minutes of FP2, like I see on Saturday [in 2027], you have no time to even make a sprint distance.”

"Half the number of Sprints"

One change Acosta would support is reducing the number of Sprint races to roughly half the calendar.

“For me, like I say, we should start to take out risky sessions during the calendar, because are also many sprint races that are really boring.

“I mean, when we go to Sachsenring, we cannot overtake, this race is boring from lap 1 to lap 15.

“Half [the Sprints] I think is a good number. Also, everyone knows, after four years, what sprint races are more interesting."

Acosta concluded: “The professional careers of the riders will be shorter and shorter and shorter and shorter if we keep like this."