MotoGP: Grand Prix Commission scrap penalty points

MotoGP rulemaking body the Grand Prix Commission have announced the scrapping of their penalty points structure in the follow-up of changes made last year to the way race direction penalises riders for infractions.

Most notably coming into play in the 2015 season finale when Valentino Rossi was sent to the back of the grid following his collision with Marc Marquez at the previous round of the championship, where the combination of points from that and a previous incident was enough to see him penalised.

However, with stricter punishments for incidents now available to race control, the new system had largely been unused for the past season. Initially introduced to ensure parity between all riders when it came to punishment, it’ll now be down to race direction and the new FIM MotoGP Stewards panel to ensure that that is the case.

Another rule changed at the meeting was the removal of any option for a rider to appeal penalties beyond the FIM Appeal Stewards who convene at every round. How this affects a riders’ ability to protest to external bodies like the Court of Arbitration for Sport, as Rossi did with his 2015 penalty, is not addressed but should remain unchanged.

The only technical rule changes made at the meeting was to extend the ban on the use of titanium in Moto2 and Moto3 to include the entire chassis, including the swinging-arm, suspension, handlebars, swinging arm spindles and wheel spindles. For wheel spindles the use of light alloys is also forbidden.