Pedro Acosta Warns to MotoGP New Format "We are not Racing Cars"

Red Bull Ring Winner Says "We Have No Choice" but Argues a Fifth High-Risk Session Is Wrong for a Championship Already Running Sprints at All 22 Rounds

Pedro Acosta has spoken out against MotoGP's new 2027 race weekend format. He warned that it will add stress and injury risk and remove the Sunday warm-up. He was speaking in media scrums at Mandalika on Thursday, ahead of the Indonesian Grand Prix in this weekend.

The ten-minute Sunday warm-up also disappears. It will be replaced by a ten-minute pre-race pit lane window for multiple sighting laps.

Acosta accepted that riders have no say in the matter but made clear he expects a demanding season. "We have no choice, so it doesn't really matter what we think about it," he said. "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."

Acosta said riders already push to the limit in four sessions per weekend: practice, qualifying, the Sprint and the main race. He pointed to the calendar's workload, with 22 rounds and a Sprint at every one.

"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," he said.

He said the format might make sense if only some rounds had a Sprint. "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."

Acosta said the physical cost of crashing needs more weight in these decisions. "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."

He argued that the sheer number of maximum-effort sessions makes injuries close to inevitable. "We are risking already too much. 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."

Acosta was equally critical of the removal of the Sunday warm-up. He said it is a key chance to check the bike after any crash on Saturday. "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."

He said the replacement sighting laps are not equivalent, even though the time allowed is the same. "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."

He said any problem found on the grid would leave no time to fix it. "Ten 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."

Acosta said he is broadly content with the current structure and agreed that using Friday practice results to set 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 first 10, you go to Q2, or if not, then you go to Q1, and then you have two guys that have another chance."

Acosta is fourth in the 2026 standings on 243 points. He will leave KTM to join Marc Marquez at Ducati in 2027. At Motegi last weekend, he qualified third and was caught up in the Lap 1 crash at Turn 3 in the Sprint, walking away unhurt. He recovered in the Grand Prix to finish seventh.

Credit Photo : MotoGP