MotoGP winner’s “unique regret” over 2027 sprint qualifying format

Outgoing Yamaha MotoGP rider Alex Rins says he has a “unique regret” over the 2027 format change, as it finally removes a session he found “useless”.

Ahead of the Indonesian Grand Prix last week, MotoGP announced a radical format shake-up for the 2027 season to incorporate a sprint qualifying session.

The new format will see 75 minutes of practice on Friday across two sessions followed by a group 15-minute qualifying to decide the sprint grid.

On Saturday, every rider will go through Q1, with the fastest 12 advancing to Q2 to decide the grid for Sunday’s race, while Sunday’s 10-minute warm-up session has been axed.

“When I leave, they change it!”

Alex Rins is glad to see the end of warm-up sessions, having railed against them throughout his grand prix career.

However, with the Spaniard leaving the championship at the end of this season, the change in format represents “a unique regret”.

“It looks not bad,” he said in Indonesia of the new format.

“The unique regret that I have is that almost since I joined the MotoGP World Championship in 2012, in 2013 I was complaining to my team, ‘Ah, warm-up, warm-up, it’s for nothing’.

“And every year it was even more demanding, every year in Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP.

“In MotoGP I was close one time, I remember, to not doing the warm-up because it’s useless.

“You just put your body under more stress for 10, 20 minutes for nothing.

“And, fuck, when I leave, they change it! This is the unique regret. But, no, it looks not bad.”

Rins’ outlook is more positive than a lot of his fellow riders’ on the new format, with Marc Marquez and Pedro Acosta especially vocal about it.

“It looks similar to F1… maybe we can have a Q3”

The new format follows what Liberty-owned Formula 1 has done in recent years with its sprint weekends.

The idea of qualifying being split into three segments has been touted as a possibility already, with Rins bringing it up again in Indonesia.

“The changes are always significant,” he added.

“They do good things and bad things. But it looks similar to F1, where they do Q1 and Q2.

“Let’s see if in a few years they have Q3. For me, it’s not bad.

“The time on track is exactly the same, or even less.

“But what is going to be interesting for the riders, who are here for many years like Marc, or most of us, is how they approach the weekend because it changes a lot.

“The race is normally at 2 pm; there is no action on track until 2pm.”