MotoGP considering reducing riders to one bike from 2027

MotoGP is seriously evaluating the possibility of changing its regulations so that each rider would have access to only one bike instead of two from the 2027 season onwards, Motorsport.com has learned. 

The proposal is currently part of the negotiations involving the championship promoter on one side and the manufacturers and teams on the other. These discussions will define the framework governing relations between all parties from 2027 to 2031.

The initiative, the finer details of which are still unknown, originated from the manufacturers, with the primary objective of reducing costs. Should the measure come into force, it is estimated that teams would be able to cut the number of technicians within each structure, although it remains difficult to quantify the financial savings in absolute terms.

Because it would represent a regulatory change, the proposal would need to go through the corresponding voting procedures and receive approval from the Grand Prix Commission.

If implemented, premier-class riders would find themselves in a situation similar to that of Moto2 and Moto3 competitors, who since 2010 have operated with only one bike at their disposal, even if teams are still capable of assembling a second complete machine from spare parts stored in the trucks.

However, the most logical scenario would likely mirror the protocol currently used in WorldSBK. In that championship, each rider officially has only one bike available, although a second machine is kept either at the back of the garage or inside the truck without certification to run.

If a crash causes irreparable damage to one of the key components, such as the chassis, the team can request intervention from the championship’s technical inspectors. Those officials assess the damage and must authorise the hidden spare bike before it can enter the track.

Formula 1’s governing body, the FIA, banned spare cars — commonly known as “T-cars” or “mules” — ahead of the 2008 season, also as part of a cost-cutting effort.

In MotoGP, introducing such a change would have enormous strategic implications, given that teams would no longer be able to work simultaneously with two different set-up directions while having only one bike inside the garage.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team, testing the bike change for potential 'flag-to-flag' situations

Photo by: Loic Venance / AFP via Getty Images

Another scenario concerns races declared as ‘flag-to-flag’. Currently, during wet races, riders wishing to switch bikes to adapt to changing weather conditions enter the pit lane, jump off one machine and onto another already equipped with the appropriate tyres and set-up for the conditions — a switch that usually takes no more than three seconds.

This procedure has existed in MotoGP for nearly 20 years, having first been introduced at the 2006 Australian Grand Prix.

If the new format were approved, however, that system would no longer be viable, at least not in the same form currently used in WorldSBK. In the production-based championship, riders are required to stop in the garage, where mechanics carry out a tyre change under a mandatory minimum pit-stop time designed to prevent dangerous rejoin situations.