Safety and controversies
The accidents in Barcelona and the growing discussion on the topic of safety in MotoGP have increased doubts regarding the decision to introduce the first city GP in the history of the Motorcycle World Championship into the world calendar, starting from the 2027 season. It will take place – as known – in Adelaide, Australia, and that event will replace the beloved Phillip Island race, which this year will experience its swan song.
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But is it safe enough to think about bringing a Motorcycle World Championship weekend to a city track? Carlos Ezpeleta, MotoGP sporting director, also spoke about this during a meeting held at Mugello with all the Italian journalists. The Spanish manager assured that the Adelaide race will present no problems and that, seen on television, it will be difficult to notice a difference with any other race held on a ‘traditional’ track.
Adelaide will be “a race like the others”
“The riders also confirmed that what happened in Barcelona could potentially happen on any other circuit. Adelaide will be a completely normal circuit – Ezpeleta emphasized – it will be like all the others. The only difference is that a week after the race there will only be asphalt and that three months before the race there will only be asphalt. There will be all the work to put protections, gravel, the box structure, but what people will see on television will be a circuit like Mugello, Barcelona, or any other“.
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Ezpeleta also specified that the idea of the city circuit was not a ‘top-down’ imposition from Liberty Media, but rather the realization of an opportunity created by some circumstances: “There was no list of requests from Liberty Media – explained the World Championship sporting director – we have been working to grow the sport and we started even before Liberty, 35 years ago. It’s not that we wanted at all costs to have a city circuit. We had many requests from new places to race. The only thing we wanted was to bring the circuits closer to where the people are“.
“Phillip Island is a circuit that is very much liked when everything goes well, there is sun, the temperature is right, there is no wind – Ezpeleta concluded – but even when everything goes well it still has very large limitations in capacity for hotels, for access roads. This opportunity arose and we are very happy, just as we are happy to return to Buenos Aires, on a completely new circuit next year, in a city of 14 million people. It’s not that we want a city circuit: we want to be closer to the people in places where we think there can be a bigger growth of the audience”.
