Since Silverstone, there are two free practice sessions instead of one in the MotoGP class: For Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo, however, this has not made things any more relaxed
In the MotoGP class, as the premier class of the motorbike world championship, there has been a rule change in the current 2023 season that affects the weekend format. Since the British weekend at Silverstone at the beginning of August, there have been two Free Practice sessions and only one practice session, which decides the allocation to the two qualifying groups (Q1/Q2).
Up to and including the Netherlands weekend at Assen at the end of June, both Friday practice sessions had counted for allocation to Q1/Q2. There was only one session on Saturday morning as a real free practice, in which the set-up of the bikes for the race distance could be worked on in peace.
Among the manufacturers, Ducati was originally against the rule change in the middle of the season, but then agreed to it. The fact that there have been two free practice sessions since Silverstone and thus, on paper, more time for set-up work with regard to the race, has hardly any effect in practice, according to Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo.
“It is a very small advantage when the track conditions are difficult,” Quartararo refers to the free practice on Friday morning. Especially when the grip level is not yet optimal at this early stage of the race weekend, crashes are more frequent – especially on tracks where it is much cooler in the morning than in the afternoon.
“But in the end,” Quartararo continues, “it doesn’t change anything. You have to push just like before, because you have to try to find the best set-up as quickly as possible. So it doesn’t make a big difference if the FT1 counts for qualifying or not. “
When asked if a free practice session on Friday (which didn’t happen in the first half of the season) would make the bike set-up better for the rest of the weekend, Quartararo replied, “No, because our bikes basically haven’t changed since the beginning of the season. The set-ups and also everything else have remained the same.”
“The only thing we changed was the aerodynamics, namely at Silverstone. There are minor adjustments from that, for example in terms of setting the springs. But the basic set-up has really remained very very similar,” said Quartararo.
