MotoGP has acknowledged that its own riders are not following the detail of the 2027 regulation reset.
Speaking at the Indonesian Grand Prix on Friday, Deputy CEO Carlos Ezpeleta told reporters that teams and organisers needed to communicate the overhaul more clearly, after a week of rider complaints about tyre limits, qualifying changes and the removal of Sunday warm-up.
“We push or we really ask the teams to speak to the riders, and there’s been sort of mixed levels of that during the last couple of GPs,” Ezpeleta said.
The admission has landed at the tightest finish in MotoGP history. Jorge Martin leads Marc Marquez by two points with 222 still on offer across the remaining rounds, pushing the governance row onto an unusually loud stage.
Read also: Mourinho reacts to Man City guilty verdict: “We’ll be 80 before it’s over”
Marquez tells riders they must ‘take it or leave’
Marquez, speaking the day before Ezpeleta, had delivered the sharpest line of the week. Asked about the 2027 changes, the Ducati rider backed Pedro Acosta’s warning that the format would increase physical risk.
“Yeah, the thing is, it’s interesting to understand what the main goal is of that change, because for the rider it’s only more intense, more demanding,” Marquez said.
“With the [current] schedule, it’s enough. But we don’t decide. It is what it is, and we must shut up.”
He placed the decision squarely with the teams and the organisation.
Read also: Michael Olise sends clear message to Liverpool, Arsenal and Man City amid transfer interest
“Teams and organisation decide. So, you take it or you leave,” Marquez said.
Acosta warns of shorter careers
The strongest attack came from KTM’s Pedro Acosta, who told reporters at Mandalika on Thursday that the new weekend structure would shorten careers.
“The professional careers of the riders will be shorter and shorter and shorter and shorter if we keep like this,” Acosta said.
He pointed to the extra high-pressure session on Friday, the loss of warm-up on Sunday, and a calendar that already runs to 22 rounds with a Sprint at every one.
Read also: Cristiano Ronaldo already suspended as Portugal considers further punishment
Tyre limits are the sticking point
Ezpeleta argued the proposal had come from the teams and had been designed around existing risk levels, not above them.
The communication breakdown, he said, was mainly over the qualifying tyre allocation.
“When you’re limited in the number of tyres, you actually should be pushing less because if you make a mistake, you are starting from the back,” Ezpeleta said.
“Now, the riders are able to use so many tyres that after crashing, you have a second chance, which you won’t have in the future.”
Read also: Verstappen and Hadjar on F1 cooling vest: “It should be banned”
Ezpeleta, who stepped up to Deputy CEO in August alongside his father Carmelo, said MotoGP remained “open to change and improve the schedule” and that the paddock could still raise concerns through the Friday Safety Commission.
The Indonesian Grand Prix runs through Sunday at Mandalika. Marquez is chasing his first Sunday finish at the circuit in four attempts, with the title race on the line.
Read also: Harry Kane just signed on at Bayern. Dion Dublin wants United to raid them anyway
