What MotoGP’s 2023 crash stats say about the sprint format
Like them or lump them, sprint races are here to stay in MotoGP . Their introduction may have been sudden and overwhelming, but the primary aim of them was to get more people interested in the series. And a look at the trackside figures for 2023 reveals that was definitely the case. Of the 20 rounds run in 2023, 15 events showed an uptick in Saturday attendance compared to 2022. Of the rest, Austin's figures are not available, India was a first-time event, Indonesia and Argentina dipped slightly, while Australia’s schedule was altered due to the weather, meaning the GP ran on Saturday. Overall, 16 events topped their 2022 figures. There are some caveats to this that must be factored in. The 2022 season was still very much in the throes of the COVID hangover, and so some events were likely to have been affected by that. The French GP saw an all-time attendance record of 278,805 last year. But France has two immensely popular riders and Claude Michy’...