It’s official – we are no longer due for a 21-round MotoGP championship. The new addition to the calendar has been scrubbed off a little under three months from when we were due to visit for the inaugural Kazakhstan grand prix, meaning the riders and teams now get the entire month of July off to recuperate. MotoGP’s official statement on the matter states that the reason is “ongoing homologation works at the circuit, paired with current global operational challenges”.
It’s a curious scenario, and one that we’ve seen plenty of times before. The culprit of recent seasons was the Finnish grand prix, whose circuit was still very much under construction and lacking funding last time we were set to visit. This season was set to introduce two new circuits in Kazakhstan and India, but doubts circulated very quickly about the likelihood of either actually coming to fruition. The first domino has now fallen; we will have to wait and see if Buddh hangs onto its position in the Asian flyaway rounds later this year.
The official statement makes it clear that MotoGP intends to race in Kazakhstan in 2024 and beyond, despite whatever “global operational challenges” are currently being faced. This is a region of the world yet to be conquered by two-wheeled motorsports, and the FIM clearly wants to continue its global expansion and hit as many markets as they can. Regardless of what stands in their way, they will continue to push this envelope until we either race there or the circuit goes under, as the Kymi Ring did.
So, what does this mean for the championship? Firstly, it means we are no longer on for the longest season in MotoGP history, with just 20 rounds for riders to deal with (albeit with 40 races thanks to sprints). The riders will get a comfortable break between the Dutch TT (June 25th) and Silverstone (July 30th) in order to see their families and friends, recover from the injuries and stresses of modern-day MotoGP, and prepare themselves for the task of twelve rounds in four months to wrap up the championship.
It’s important to realise that this is an critical part of the championship, and something that has only been enabled by Kazakhstan stepping down. MotoGP riders are mortal men, despite some of the feats they perform on bikes, and the stress of the world championship is a heavy burden for them to carry. It has been a longstanding tradition to have a few weeks off in the middle of the season, somewhere around June-July, in order to allow the riders and their teams a chance to have a holiday away from racing and reset themselves before tackling the second half of the season.
If it weren’t for Kazakhstan dropping out, there would have been just three weeks between the first nine rounds and the final twelve, and that’s not even considering the time it would have taken to get everything back from the Middle East to Europe. The paddock is already under the greatest amount of stress they’ve had to endure thanks to the introduction of sprints, and were now being expected to take one of the shortest Summer breaks in memory to rejuvenate. I would wager there’s a great many people who work in MotoGP currently breathing a sigh of relief.
This also means the European leg of the championship will actually remain in Europe for its entire duration, which will be great for everyone involved. The task of jumping from continent to continent is not an easy one, showcased perfectly when the grid had to pack up at the conclusion of the Portuguese race earlier this year and hightail it to Argentina in four days. Having the next nine rounds all held in the same continent with a comfortable break in the middle will help reinforce some order and stability to what has been a rather manic season so far.
The big winners here are any riders who didn’t manage to get their season off to a good start between Portimao and COTA and are looking to try again in Jerez. Using the European ‘reset’ as a foundation for a championship challenge is a well-known strategy in this sport, and removing a wildcard like Kazakhstan from the running order will be a great boon to anyone banking on these more familiar tracks to strengthen their results. If you can take a string of good results between Jerez and Misano, it barely matters how much you scored in the opening three rounds.
Normally I would wrap up an article like this by briefly weighing up the pros and cons and encouraging readers to think about their own opinions on this, but I don’t really think there’s much to debate here. An unexpected entry to the calendar is gone, the European leg is now entirely in Europe, and the riders and teams get a cushy 5-week break to emotionally and physically recover from the toll this season has been taking. So long, Kazakhstan – I’m not sure you’ll be missed by many.
Solomon Talks Bikes 