Cal Crutchlow: MotoGP Sprints? I was paid per race, unlike the riders now!
Out of retirement for a gruelling end-of-season mix of six races plus private tests, Cal Crutchlow is relieved he won’t have to face next year’s biggest-ever MotoGP calendar.
“⭕I can't imagine the 21 races you're going to do next year because it's tough going,” Crutchlow said.
“I always think that the riders get treated the best, honestly speaking. So 🦩for everyone else, it's going to be a long haul let's say - especially with the Sprint races as well.”
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The Eng♌lishman quipped: “They're not very clever, the riders, are they? They sign per&nb🔯sp;season but now they've got double the number of races, as well as some more [rounds]!
“I always signed per race because you never know what's going to happ🐟en. But it also works the other way, if they cancelled a race, they could take some money away!
“But seriously, it's going to be difficult next year, as𒅌 I said, and not just for the riders.”
Race start, MotoGP race, Aragon MotoGP, 18 September
‘18 grands prix is enough’
While Crutchlow believes the stra✃in on paddock members is “considered” when constructing the calendar, the bottom line is, “if somebody's not happy with it, there will always be someone else who will take thei🅺r job.
“They're not struggling to find people who want to be a mecha♒nic, chef, or hospitality person. 🌳They always know they can get someone else if somebody doesn't want to do the job.
“Even the ri♓ders, if you don't want to do the job, they'll get another one. A good one, I don't know, but...
“I think [21 rounds] is too much pඣersonally, and if you speak to the riders, I would say the ones who have family also think it's difficult. But for the ones that are young, with no girlfriend, it's a different situation.
“Personally, I think 18 grands prix is enough. But I'm not the guy who's writing the rules and saying where th🧜ey go or where they don't.
“As I said, there will always be somebody to replace the other person. If they said it was 30 grands prix [next year]♈, there'd be people coming ꦓto do 30 grands prix.
“On the other hand, ⛄everyone says, ‘Formula One has more [races]’. But they have two teams [of staff]. There's one at one race and for the next race there's a♌nother group already setting up the garage.”
Cal Crutchlow, MotoGP, Malaysian MotoGP, 22 October
‘I’m like a fine wine’
With 24-front row starts during his own full-time MotoGP career, Crutchlow would once have e🌳njoyed the intensity of a short Sprint race. But 𒁃not anymore.
“Six years ago, yeah, not now!” said ꧟the 3🐲7-year-old. “I'm like a fine wine now, I get faster as the race goes on normally.
“I used to be able to do really ꧙fast laps, but now I can’t. I'm not down with the kids! For one lap, they're superb.
“If I have to come back next year and do a sprint race, Iꦍ’m just g✨oing to can it because it’ll be like qualifying.
“In qualifying now, you'll do 6 [flying] laps, 7-8 if you count🧜 out and in laps where sometimes you’re pushing as well.
“At Sepang that’d nearly be half race d꧑is🔯tance [the same length as the Sprint race].”
After repla♔cing Andrea Dovizioso at RNF for the final six races of this season, and impressin𓆏g with a best finish of twelfth at Sepang, Crutchlow will focus on Yamaha test-riding duties in 2023.
Peter has been in the paꦐddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.