English
Italiano
In a recent long interview with Carmelo Ezpeleta on as.com, the CEO of Dorna, 76 years old and head of the MotoGP world championship, clarified some of his points of view and expectations for the 2023 season. Among the main arguments obviously the effect the introduction of sprint races in the calendar.
"The main expectation is that the changes we have proposed will bear the desired results - Ezpeleta began - there is always concern when something new is introduced. We are used to criticism, which has come ever since the announcement. There are always critics, it's normal that there are. I've always said that people tend to be very conservative. The first big thing we did was move from 500cc to MotoGP and that was a huge thing. Then also with Moto2 and the Moto3, it was the same thing. And the single ECU... All the things we changed have been criticized and, so far, we haven't had to go back on any of them. However, this doesn't mean that if we see that things don't work, we will have trouble going back. We must try to innovate and think about how to improve things to get people passionate about our championship. We must find a way and we are concerned about the attention of spectators in some places".
The Spaniard is clearly referring to concerns about the drop in spectators last season, especially at circuits such as Portimao and Mugello.
"For Mugello we don't have precise information yet because it's later in the calendar, but from what I know Portimao and also the United States are doing better than last year. From the latest information I have attendances are increasing a lot for this season. I don't know if it's only due to the sprint races, but we are clearly increasing the number of requests and bookings compared to last year".
The sprint races announcement conference didn't receive a warm reception, the atmosphere was tense.
"I recognize that we approached the press conference poorly. We approached it defensively and it was the announcement of great news. We approached it poorly and I don't understand why something that could be an advantage for the World Championship was received so badly. We thought the teams would inform the riders of what we had agreed with them, because everything had been agreed with the factory and privateer teams, but they didn't."
However, sprint races can lead to major losses among riders ahead of Sunday's race.
"There's always a risk and it's a double-edged sword, because it can happen, but I hope not. A rider can crash during the sprint race and in the warm-up. Last year, Marc crashed in Indonesia during the warm-up ... The risk of crashing and getting hurt in this sport is always present."
