What F1 and MotoGP Sprint races reveal about designing memorable experiences

“Adding more high-intensity moments can increase engagement in the moment but weaken what customers ultimately remember. By analysing the “Sprint” race formats introduced in Formula One and MotoGP, Jorge Pena Marin and G. Tomas M. Hult show how sequencing choices determine whether experiences become more memorable – or just more cluttered. When designing experiences most managers eventually face a familiar question: should we add another high-engagement touchpoint for our customers, such as a new feature, a new event, or a new “moment”? Intuitively, the answer often feels obvious: if customers like an experience, adding more intense moments should help. Yet most firms optimise moments in isolation. What they rarely manage is how moments interact in customers’ memory. Moment density focuses precisely on that interaction. Human memory does not work like a spreadsheet. Decades of research show that retrospective evaluations overweight the most intense “peak” moments and how an experience ends. Customers do not remember journeys minute by minute; instead, they remember a small sequence of moments that come to define “what mattered.” Adding moments therefore does not simply add value, it reshapes the story customers remember and alters the customer journey. Consider what happens in retail when shops add “surprise and delight” moments, such as a complimentary sample, a handwritten thank-you note or a loyalty discount reveal, at the till. Each moment, in isolation, tests positively. But when stacked together at the transaction’s end, they can actually weaken the overall experience. The checkout, which should be a clean resolution, becomes cluttered with stimuli. No single gesture stands out. The customer walks away remembering “a lot going on” rather than any specific moment of care. These patterns reveal a core challenge: experience design requires managing not just what happens but how what happens is remembered. And to understand that, we need to look at moment density. The moment density framework As a managerial tool for designing memorable customer experiences we propose the “moment density framework”. Moment density can be defined as the amount of meaningful impact delivered per unit of time. Moment density increases when signature moments are clearly differentiated and meaningfully laddered, and it decreases when moments are compressed enough to blur, compete, or cannibalise one another. Formula One and MotoGP provide a natural experiment Few industries manage moment engineering as deliberately as motorsport, particularly Formula One and MotoGP. As the world’s premier international racing series, their race weekends, are carefully choreographed, multi-day live experiences followed by global spectators, television audiences, and streaming viewers rather than single standalone events. The introduction of “Sprint” races in Formula One, in 2021, and MotoGP, in 2023, provides a rare opportunity to observe moment density principles in action. Both series faced the same challenge: make Saturday, the second day of the weekend of racing, more meaningful and experience-oriented. Both chose the same solution: add a short, high-stakes race. But they implemented it differently, and those differences illuminate the moment density framework. MotoGP: laddering through gateways MotoGP’s schedule places qualifying before the Sprint on every race weekend. Saturdays include the first and second qualifying sessions, followed by the Sprint. This ordering makes the two qualifying rounds high-stakes gateways since they determine the starting grid for both the Sprint and the main race held on Sunday. Consequently, qualifying is a signature moment in MotoGP even after adding the Sprint. From a moment-density perspective, MotoGP protects the distinctiveness of Saturday by assigning each session strategically to a different psychological role. Qualifying functions as a precision, high-arousal moment while the Sprint serves as a conflict-resolution moment that delivers a compressed, points-paying battle. Crucially, these signature moments do not compete as parallel peaks. Qualifying can be seen to create a hierarchy and tension, and the Sprint resolves that tension via direct racing. The MotoGP sequencing also produces a solid stakes ladder. The day follows a clear setup → payoff structure, with qualifying building the anticipation and the Sprint providing the release. Because the sessions are separated by visible boundaries (time in the paddock, grid procedures, ceremonies and broadcast resets), the spectators around the world are likely to view them as distinct moments rather than blending into a single, undifferentiated block of action. Formula One: the compression challenge Formula One has introduced Sprint races in around a quarter of its meetings. (The image above shows Lando Norris winning the Sprint for McLaren at the Miami Grand Prix in 2025.) It structures its weekend by running the Sprint on Saturday and then holding qualifying for Sunday’s Grand Prix later on the same day. This sequencing makes Saturday more action-rich, but it also introduces a design risk: if the Sprint becomes the day’s most salient payoff, qualifying can feel less like a defining signature moment and more like a secondary act. From a moment-density perspective, the central risk is signature moment cannibalisation. If the Sprint is experienced as equally or more intense than qualifying, spectators may emotionally “spend” their attention on the wheel-to-wheel race, leaving the precision-based qualifying session to feel anticlimactic. This anticlimactic emotion is especially felt when the transition between the two lacks a strong reset boundary. Because retrospective evaluation is sensitive to order, this sequencing shapes which moments are encoded as the true peaks of the experience. This challenge is not only about intensity, but also about causality and the stakes ladder. Unlike MotoGP, qualifying in Formula One does not determine the Sprint grid. As a result, Saturday can feel like two parallel contests with different outcomes (points versus grid position) rather than a coherent setup → payoff sequence. Even if the Sprint is intended as a supporting moment and qualifying as the signature moment, the structure does less to make one moment naturally reinforce the other. Memory as the performance metric Managers often try to improve customer experiences by adding high-engagement touchpoints across the journey. Yet experiences are not remembered as continuous streams of activity. They are remembered through a small set of signature moments that come to define “what mattered.” As a result, more action is not always additive. It can increase engagement while simultaneously weakening the distinctiveness of the experience in memory. The contrast between MotoGP and Formula One Sprint weekends illustrates this trade-off. MotoGP preserves a setup → payoff ladder by positioning qualifying as a gateway to the Sprint, protecting distinctiveness across the weekend. Formula One’s sequencing places greater pressure on organisers to prevent signature-moment cannibalisation given that the high-intensity moments risk competing rather than reinforcing one another. In both cases, the issue is not excitement per se, but whether new moments strengthen or destabilise the overall memory structure. For managers, the implication is clear. When introducing new signature moments, the critical question is not only whether the moment is compelling in isolation, but whether it clarifies roles, preserves hierarchy, and strengthens the moments that surround it. Leaders should look beyond real-time engagement metrics and ask a more strategic question: What will customers remember most and what will that memory crowd out? In experience design, memory is the ultimate performance metric. This article gives the views of the author, not the position of LSE Business Review or the London School of Economics. You are agreeing with our comment policy when you leave a comment. Image credit: cristiano barni provided by Shutterstock. The post What F1 and MotoGP Sprint races reveal about designing memorable experiences first appeared on LSE Business Review .

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