The MotoGP World Championship, for the second consecutive year, on the 75th anniversary of the championship, intended to be the longest in history in 2024. After the cancellation of the Indian GP announced this Wednesday by Dorna, the contest has gone from 22 events planned to 19 in a matter of months. And in a matter of minutes, in fact, he had 20 stops again. There will not, in any case, be a record number of grand prizes. After announcing the fall of the scheduled event at the end of summer on the Buddh track, the Spanish company has relocated the Kazakhstan GP, previously postponed, to the free dates between September 20 and 22.
If there are no new setbacks with the preparations at the Sokol circuit, located north of Almaty, the most populated city in the Central Asian country, the factories and drivers will debut the Asian tour in the thirty-first country to host a World Cup event. The Kazakh event, initially scheduled for mid-June, was postponed sine die at the beginning of May due to heavy flooding in the territory. At the beginning of the year, MotoGP also had to cancel the Argentine GP due to a political dispute.
In its statement about the “postponement” of the Indian GP, Dorna reaffirms its long-term commitment to the promoters of the event and advances that the next event in Indian territory will be held in March 2025, when the weather conditions will be optimal for pilots. and spectators. In the first edition of the grand prix, the extreme heat and humidity pushed the physique of the protagonists to the limit and significantly reduced the presence of the public in the stands in a key market in the championship’s expansion plans.
In recent weeks, several reports leaked conflicting versions about the future of the test in India. From Dorna, they cited economic problems, with an alleged delay in established payments, as the main reason for the suspension of the GP this 2024. The private promoter of the event, FairStreet Sports, responded that Indian law prevented economic movements from being made in the latter case. months due to the electoral process underway in the country. Now, both parties, including the regional government of the state of Uttar Pradesh, cite climatological reasons for this change of plans.
An unstable calendar
In 2024, MotoGP has already announced four changes to the season calendar, and last year it was also forced to cancel the inaugural test in Kazakhstan as the work on what will be, if nothing goes wrong, the 75th circuit was not completed. to appear in the motorcycle world championship. The Sokol circuit is still pending the approval process by the International Motorcycle Federation (FIM). Hungary, which had been included as a reserve event in the event of unforeseen events, was not considered a wild card during the previous postponements.
The loss of other events planned in recent years, such as the triple suspension of an event scheduled in Finland between 2021 and 2023, underlines the problems of configuration and establishment in new markets by the event in the process of being sold to the American multinational Liberty Media , owner of Formula 1.
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