The MotoGP Grand Prix Commission decisions 2026 have reshaped three key areas of the championship: the start line, the grid and the factory floor. Front ride-height devices are gone from the Dutch Grand Prix onwards. Grid row spacing increases at the German Grand Prix. And from 2028, no manufacturer can put more than six bikes on the grid. Three changes came out of one meeting. The first one hits immediately at Assen.
MotoGP Grand Prix Commission Decisions 2026: Front Ride Height Devices Gone from Assen
The most immediate change is the removal of front ride-height devices from all MotoGP machines, effective from the Dutch Grand Prix. The decision follows consultation with all MotoGP teams, and riders have already had the opportunity to test their starts in additional Practice Start sessions ahead of the change landing.
If you haven’t come across holeshot devices before, here’s what they do. At the start of a MotoGP race, the front of the bike naturally wants to lift under hard acceleration, which costs traction and drive. The front ride-height device temporarily holds the front of the bike lower for launch, keeping it planted and helping the rider put more power into forward drive. The rider activates it before the lights go out, and it releases once the bike is up to racing speed. The point is simple. Less front lift, more launch. At Assen, where track position into the opening sequence can snowball quickly, fractions of a second off the line have decided a lot.
Teams have invested heavily in developing and refining these systems since they became widespread in MotoGP. Removing them doesn’t just change how the bikes launch. It changes how engineers have been building and setting up machines around the start phase, and it changes what riders feel under them when the lights go out at Assen this weekend. Starts move back towards rider feel, clutch control and baseline setup rather than a launch phase built around device activation. Assen now gets the first read on who adapts quickest.
The Dutch Grand Prix runs from 26 to 28 June at the TT Circuit Assen. If you’re in London on race day, MotoGP and TNT Sports are putting the race on the immersive screens at Outernet on Tottenham Court Road, free and open to the public from 1pm BST.
Grid Spacing Increased from the German Grand Prix
The second decision is a grid layout adjustment for all classes, taking effect from the German Grand Prix. The vertical spacing between rows of riders increases from three metres to four metres. That means the space covered by each three-row block increases from nine metres to twelve metres. Three riders per row stays the same.
More space between rows at the start reduces the risk of contact when bikes accelerate from a standing position. Race starts in MotoGP have produced some significant incidents over the years and this change is a direct response to that. It is a safety call more than a sporting one, and it applies across MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 from the Sachsenring weekend onwards. You can find the full 2026 MotoGP calendar here for the remaining rounds.
Six Bikes Per Manufacturer from 2028
The third decision lands further out, but it could shape the grid. From 2028, no manufacturer will be permitted to field more than six riders in MotoGP. In practice, that means a manufacturer can supply their own factory team plus a maximum of two satellite operations. The rule comes with one condition: at least five manufacturers must be competing in the championship at that time for it to apply.
This is the grid-balance part of the package. At various points in MotoGP history, dominant manufacturers have supplied three, four or more teams, leaving a large chunk of the grid on broadly the same machinery. Capping it at six bikes gives rival manufacturers a clearer path to relevance and makes the satellite team landscape more competitive. It also sits alongside the recently signed 2027 to 2031 MotoGP agreement in shaping what the grid looks like from the second half of the decade.
The catch is the five-manufacturer clause. MotoGP currently has Ducati, Honda, Yamaha, KTM and Aprilia competing at the top level. If that number drops below five by 2028, the cap doesn’t automatically apply. That is the safeguard. If the grid contracts, the rule does not box the remaining manufacturers into a limit that could make filling seats harder.
What It Means Heading into Assen
Of the three decisions, the front ride-height device ban is the one that changes this weekend most directly. The Dutch Grand Prix at Assen is one of MotoGP’s cornerstone weekends. Now it carries a new start-line variable at the very first moment of the race. Who launches cleanest, who reaches the first corner with track position, and whether the loss of that mechanical help changes the early order become the first live test of the rule.
The Grand Prix Commission’s decisions were made with the full composition of the body present, including FIM President Jorge Viegas, MotoGP’s Carlos Ezpeleta, Director of Technology Corrado Cecchinelli, FIM CCR Director Paul King and FIM CTI Technical Director Dominique Hebrard. The updated FIM Grand Prix Regulations will carry the full wording.
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