Pedro Acosta prompts a world championship rule change

Situations relating to both Fabio Quartararo and Marc Marquez have previously encouraged Dorna and the FIM to modify the regulation with ‘person-specific’ rules. It might be different in this case but the trigger looks to have been the Mugello Moto2 race that saw Pedro Acosta beat Tony Arbolino by more than 6”.

Pedro Acosta at Mugello: what happened?

At the end of the Italian GP, Pedro Acosta handed the helmet he had just worn for the race to a technician working for Mt Helmet (his helmet supplier up until last season), only for the technician to hand the RedBull KTM Ajo rider an identical helmet. None of those present noticed at the time but perhaps somebody watching at home noticed and informed the Marc VDS and SpeedUp teams, which made a protest. In Moto2 (as in Moto3) there is a minimum bike-rider weight rule, which means that at the end of every session, riders are weighed while wearing all their technical gear and the sum of their weight is added to that of the bike that finished the session. If the weight falls below that established in the regulation, or rather 217kg, the rider can be disqualified. This "unexpected" exchange of helmets had people suspecting that the rider had used a lighter helmet for the race.

The Stewards Panel spoke to Pedro Acosta, who explained that he and the team wanted a clean helmet for the podium ceremony. The Spaniard was not disqualified, in that exchanging the helmet in parc fermé did not represent an infringement of the rules.

Straight to the weigh-in, no celebrations

As often happens in these cases, Dorna and FIM have learned from what occurred at Mugello last year, with the recently published technical and sporting regulation now including a new paragraph concerning weight. On page 168 of the 2024 FIM Grand Prix World Championship Regulations, point 2.5.4.1 Weights affirms that:

“Any rider directed to parc fermé for technical checks after a practice session or race, must first proceed directly to the weighing scales as indicated by the Technical Director or Technical Control staff, to confirm their finishing weight. Only after the weight check, the rider is free to continue with any media duties and to interact with their team.”

This norm will also be applied in Moto3, in that it also appears in the “2.6.4.1 Weights” paragraph relating to the gateway class. As of the Qatar GP then, taking place at Lusail on 8-10 March, the Moto3 and Moto2 riders will need to be weighed as soon as they arrive in parc fermé, before being able to celebrate their results with their teams. This may remove a little of the ‘magic’ of the images in parc fermé, where we are used to seeing riders jump off the bike and into the arms of their mechanics, but it will also prevent weight-related irregularities.