MotoGP 2027 will bring “more drama”, but bikes “super easy” and tyres “safer”

Aleix Espargaro is taking a wait-and-see approach to MotoGP’s radically revised 2027 race weekend format.

The former Aprilia race winner and current HRC test rider admits he was outspoken against the introduction of Sprints in 2023, but now accepts the benefits they have brought to the show.

Next season will bring MotoGP’s biggest weekend shake-up since then, including a separate 15-minute Sprint qualifying session on Friday afternoon.

All riders will then start Saturday’s Grand Prix Qualifying 1, with the top twelve progressing into Qualifying 2. Sunday's warm-up will disappear, replaced by a 10-minute pitlane window allowing multiple sighting laps before the race.

“We have to wait and see,” Aleix said on his return to the paddock at Mandalika last weekend.

“I was very critical with the Sprint races at the beginning; I didn't like it at all. But then after some years, you can see that the show is good, the people like it.

“Next year, I think it's going to be not easy to do 15 minutes with 22 riders, time attacks with the yellow flags, it's going to be tricky.

“But you will see a lot more drama for sure, many top riders starting in P15, in P20.

“For the championship, for the show, will be better, for the riders will be very stressful, for sure.”

MotoGP "is going to be safer"

Pressed on whether the revised format could result in more injuries, Espargaro, who has been helping Honda develop its new 850cc/Pirelli machine, believes the technical changes will actually make MotoGP safer.

“At the top of every sport in the world there is a lot of equality. So the risk, when you are close to the limit, is super high in every sport.

“In MotoGP, what I can tell you is that next year, because of the tyre change, it's going to be safer for the riders' injuries.

“That's very important, a lot safer. The tyres are super, super easy to ride, and the bikes are slower.

“So I think in this, the championship will improve - even though I like a lot more the extra power of the 1000.

“But if we speak about safety, this will be better.

“And regarding the Sprint races and the more time attacks, for sure the risk is high.

“This is something that the riders need to deal with; it's very difficult… where is the limit? Very difficult to understand.”

The extreme nature of the current machines was underlined when Espargaro, competing in his first event since serious back injuries in April, withdrew from the grand prix due to 'ongoing physical discomfort'.

MotoGP insists the revised 2027 weekend format will not increase the number of high-risk time attacks since riders will only be allowed one new set of tyres per qualifying session.

That will mean two or three time attacks per weekend (Sprint, Q1, plus the top twelve in Q2) compared with at least four time attacks at present (Friday x2, Q1 or Q2 x2, plus at least one more for the two riders who advance from Q1 to Q2).