Kevin Schwantz Talks MotoGP Format Changes and the Future of the Sport

In this talk with Motorsport.com not Austin Kevin Schwantzthe 500cc world champion in 1993 sweeps the moment he is going through in the World Championship MotoGPa time marked by the reshaping of the grand prix weekend format and the introduction of sprints.

Ask. How would you have felt having to run on Saturdays too?

Answer. First of all, I like these short races a lot. In my time it would have been difficult at the set-up level, and we would probably continue working on it on Sunday. But at the show level I think it’s very good. The bikes behave much better on Saturday than on Sunday, because the tires degrade much less and because the weight of the fuel is cut in half. The bikes on Saturday are the real racing bikes.

P. More similar to the bikes you used to race with in your time?

R. We didn’t have as much gasoline as now, but our bikes behaved tremendously differently in the last few laps compared to the first few. The idea was to try to make it as consistent as possible, but that hasn’t changed.

P. There are riders who have complained a lot about the level of aggressiveness of some, especially at the start of the sprints.

Podium: Kevin Schwantz, Suzuki

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

R. It seems that now everything depends a lot more on what you do in the first four or five laps. So you have to be aggressive and win as many places as possible at that time. And the idea that they have less time to come back because there are fewer laps is repeated in the heads of the pilots.

P. Does the World Cup miss Suzuki?

R. This new format may not be the most suitable for a team without external sponsorship. Everything was made by the factory. But he is sorely missed. When they ask me on weekends who I want to win, now I have to think and give it a spin. It will not be as easy for Suzuki to return to MotoGP this time as it was the last time. In addition, the longer it takes to do so, the more difficult it will be to recover lost ground. Suzuki was racing to have brand recognition, to have respect. But also because here you learn a lot.

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P. Here the new commercial director of the championship has been presented. What is missing from the World Cup for it to engage as it did before?

R. I always thought that everything depended on television. Liberty Media has done super well since they bought F1. He rescued her and has known how to put her in front of people, show her off. The idea and execution of Drive to Survive was brilliant. I have friends who have never seen an F1 grand prix and now they are crazy to go to a race. And that’s because of Netflix. They ask me how I haven’t seen the series, and I tell them that I can’t even watch a whole race. I just look at the results and think: ‘Oh, Verstappen won again; what a surprise’. The racing factor, the competition between one and the other, is not that much, and it is below what there is in MotoGP. But Liberty has been very good at creating that need to follow F1, to do whatever it takes to get tickets. I came to the last race that was held here last year, because he invited me Jost Understood (former director of Williams). The circuit was full of attractions, musicians and actors. I imagine that these famous people create this need to want to be there.

Kevin Schwantz presents helmet to Valentino Rossi, Petronas Yamaha SRT

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

P. One of the pillars of Liberty’s action was the penetration of F1 in the United States. What was life like for him here when he was competing and at the peak of his career?

R. In my time, the World Cup pilots were recognized all over the world except in America. Here, no one knew who I was unless I went to a motorcycle dealer. That was good because you came home and you could have life. I don’t even want to imagine Valentino Rossi in Italy, where I don’t think he can leave home.

P. Do you think that today there is a lack of a generation of pilots like yours, Wayne Rainey, Mick Doohanor like the one that followed with Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner?

R. The number of followers that Valentino had changed this discipline. He honestly thought that the fact of having a team with his name (VR46), of being present with these guys, of training with them, would somehow serve to maintain his presence. But it’s not quite like that, and the hole he left is huge.