until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
The latest update to the 2021 MotoGP calendar has been released, with the series returning to Texas as the Grand Prix of the Americas now scheduled to take place on October 3 – but it comes at the expense of the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi.
The American race has looked set to be a likely addition for some time thanks to a fast-moving program of vaccination in the USA that has significantly reduced the number of COVID cases and has seen a return to normality as sporting events resume with full spectator attendance.
The news that the Circuit of the Americas is back on the calendar will also be a welcome relief to eight-time world champion Marc Marquez, as another of his favourite tracks returns to the schedule only days after he extended his unbeaten streak at the Sachsenring to 11 consecutive races.
However, the addition of the race comes at the expense of Honda’s home round in Japan, as Motegi fails to make it onto the calendar once again. The news comes as no huge surprise given the ongoing controversy in Japan about the hosting of the delayed 2020 Olympic games later this year, with MotoGP organisers confirming that “travel complications and logistical restrictions mean that it has not been possible to confirm the event at this time”.
There will also be a reshuffled calendar to accommodate the addition of Texas, as the Thai Grand Prix at Buriram moves back one week from October 10 to 17, in order to give the championship a week off before what is scheduled to be the traditional three-week flyaway triple-header.
The Thai trip is currently set to be followed up by a return to Australia – a race that some have doubted would happen given the severity of the country’s border restrictions. However, that seems to be less of a concern than it was only a few weeks ago, in part due to Australian success in MotoGP.
“Registrations of interest for this year’s Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix are as high as they were in the Casey Stoner years, an era where he won six Phillip Island titles and picked up two world championships along the way,” Australian Grand Prix boss Andrew Westacott told local newspaper The Age this week.
“Jack Miller winning back-to-back races this year and sitting fourth in the MotoGP world championship along with Remy Gardner winning last week in Mugello, leading the Moto2 world championship have all fuelled this demand. There’s also rumours of this being Valentino Rossi’s last race on Australian soil.”
That fits with talk of Australia’s hotel quarantine rules being relaxed for major events, with a possible exemption being made for MotoGP to reduce the 14-day quarantine to allow the paddock to travel directly from Thailand to Melbourne for the race.
Following Australia, the next scheduled race is in Malaysia, a country which remains in a state of emergency but where MotoGP has significant political capital that can be used in an attempt to allow the race to go ahead.
That was demonstrated earlier this year when plans were made for MotoGP to head there for pre-season testing, using a bubble system similar to that implemented for the opening two rounds of the year in Qatar. The plan was cancelled when the situation in Malaysia worsened, but it is believed to be an option to see the race go ahead.
Apart from the overseas races, it now seems likely that the remainder of the European season will run as planned, following MotoGP’s demonstration last year of being able to safely and effectively organise events at almost all the remaining circuits.
Questions remain about fan attendance, however, with the two races in Austria the only ones after the summer break to so far confirm full fan attendance, as they open up to 75,000 attendees.
The British Grand Prix at Silverstone follows the two races at the Red Bull Ring and remains a prime candidate to also host fans given the state of the British vaccination program – but with attendance at sporting events remaining something of a political issue in the UK it seems that it will be closer to the time before the issue is resolved.
Rest of MotoGP ’21 calendar
27 June Netherlands – Assen
08 August Austria – Red Bull Ring (Styrian GP)
15 August Austria – Red Bull Ring (Austrian GP)
29 August Great Britain – Silverstone
12 September Spain – Aragon
19 September San Marino – Misano
3 October USA – COTA
17 October Thailand – Buriram
24 October Australia – Phillip Island
31 October Malaysia – Sepang
14 November Spain – Valencia
