Who reacts and who doesn’t
In these summer weeks of ‘siesta’ all the main international motorsport series are trying to address the problems that have arisen in their respective calendars due to the conflict erupted between Iran, the United States, and Israel which has made the entire Persian Gulf region unstable and dangerous. One can agree more or less with the choices each championship is making, but it is undeniable that almost all are trying to tackle the problem: the WEC has decided to cancel the races scheduled in Qatar and Bahrain respectively on October 24 and November 7 and to replace them with two events in Europe, in Barcelona and Monza; F1, through its CEO Stefano Domenicali, has stated it wants to wait until September to decide whether or not to hold the last two GPs of the season in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, but if that is not possible it has been reported that a plan B is already ready to finish the World Championship in Europe, with one or two races to be held on the old continent: Imola and/or Portimao are currently the most likely tracks.
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Almost all, we said, are reacting. Who instead is stuck in inaction is MotoGP. The MotoGP calendar originally planned the Qatar GP to take place on the weekend of April 12, but the war situation obviously prevented keeping this schedule. However, with an extremely controversial decision, MotoGP, instead of immediately focusing on an alternative venue or waiting for developments, decided to insist by officially rescheduling the Qatar race for November 8.
Not only that. Since the Portugal GP was scheduled for November 15 and it was unthinkable to imagine racing in Lusail and Portimao just seven days apart, also the Portuguese weekend and the following one in Valencia were all postponed by one week to make room for the reinsertion of Qatar. A decision made without taking into account the needs of those spectators who may have already organized their trip to attend one of the two European races that traditionally conclude the season; and, perhaps even more seriously, without imagining that the situation might not be resolved even by November.
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Complicated stalemate
Now, however, with the situation in the Persian Gulf seeming far from being definitively resolved, all the knots are coming undone. If the WEC has decided not to race in Qatar on October 24 and F1 is seriously doubting the possibility of racing in Lusail on November 29, why should MotoGP consider it feasible to hold a Grand Prix on that same track on November 8? The overlapping issues are many: is it right to keep fans who want to attend the race in Qatar in suspense? Was it right to move the dates of the Portugal and Valencia GPs to hold a Grand Prix that seriously risks not being held? There is also a purely sporting issue: in a particularly balanced season as this one has been so far holding one more or one less race could have a serious impact on the outcome of the World Championship.
Getting out of this impasse is not simple: one might perhaps imagine holding two consecutive races in Malaysia, with the second replacing the Qatar event, but between saying and doing there are still logistical aspects involved. Unless MotoGP’s strategy is to bury its head in the sand and wait until just before the scheduled date of the Qatar Grand Prix to assess whether conditions exist to race or not. But the risks of this approach are obvious to everyone except, perhaps, the MotoGP leadership alone.
