The fate of the MotoGP 2024 season finale in Valencia is a "secondary" matter amid deadly flooding in the area, riders have acknowledged.
And several of the competitors on the premier-class grid have made it clear that they don't see hosting a round at Circuit Ricardo Tormo just two weeks after the worst of the devastation as tenable.
The official death toll from the floods in the area brought on by massive amounts of rainfall is approaching triple figures, and devastation to local infrastructure has been made obvious by reports and photos.
The Ricardo Tormo track itself, located near the town of Cheste to the west of Valencia, has suffered "multiple damages" to its facilities, most notably the entry to the circuit - though the track surface is said to remain in "optimal" shape.
But this is widely regarded as irrelevant by those riding in MotoGP while the championship itself awaits further information and determines its next steps.
"It's not the time to think if there'll be a GP or not," said Gresini Ducati rider Alex Marquez.
"Now everything, all the facilities and all that, need to be with the people that are there, that don't have a home, many lost.
"It's difficult. It's not easy for all the Spanish but especially for the Valencia people. Let's see how it will be. But now we cannot just focus on the facilities of the track and everything.
"More important is the people that don't have a home, who have lost family members, than whether we'll have a GP there or not."
Marquez then paused before adding: "Honestly speaking, to think that there will be a GP there in one week and a half is difficult. We need to be realistic and we need to be human.
"So... for me it's not correct if we go there in one week and a half, if we try to put everything correct, [repair] the entry of the circuit and all that. More important things are there, and that's the families, the people.”
His elder brother Marc - when speaking to international media - stopped just short of saying he thought MotoGP shouldn't race in Valencia, but also acknolwedged that that "all the [local] facilities" need to be working towards the people in strife, and that there would be "no meaning" in trying to repair the track "while having many people without houses".
"Let's see what they will do," he concluded. He then told Spanish media that he didn't want to make a statement before changing his mind and admitting he felt "it would be a mistake, ethically speaking" for the race to take place.
There are "much bigger priorities" than the race, said Honda rider Luca Marini.
"I would like to send all my support to the families, to those working to try to come back to a good situation there," he said.
"For sure they will need to have a strong winter there, will be tough for everybody. At the moment for sure MotoGP is on a secondary level.
"Dorna and [independent teams' association] IRTA will take a decision about the race, but I think going there is not the correct moment. It's something that we lived also in first person in Emilia Romagna, what happened there last year and this year. It's something that I really know very well, the situation, and it's super dramatic for everybody that lives there."
"The images and videos that are arriving on social media are nothing [compared to reality]," said Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro. "I talked with some friends that are not living in Valencia but in some small village around Valencia, and they told me everything is super collapsed, everything destroyed, they have no houses, no cars."
His team-mate Maverick Vinales said racing this weekend at Sepang felt like a "sidenote". "Our head is in Valencia. This is something catastrophic," he added - but said he didn't know what MotoGP should do.
Vinales' former team-mate Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) was in the same boat, and could only offer "big support" to those affected, which he said he knows "is not enough".
But in terms of the damage to the circuit, he felt it was minor enough to where he expected the race to take place.
And KTM rider Jack Miller said he would have no issue racing in Valencia if that was the decision, but emphasised that "clean-up" resources should never go to a track at the expense of main roads and other crucial infrastructure.
"If we can give Valencia something back - I don't know how, we can give our prize money for example - I would do it 100 percent," said Espargaro of racing. "Or Dorna can find some way to help them. I don't know.
"The situation is very complicated. Obviously right now I think it's the less important thing, to go there and race. I'm thinking if we're able to go there and race somehow, we have to help."
Ensuring a full title battle
MotoGP cannot delay the Valencia round - the mid-November temperatures there are already at the very limit of viability for MotoGP racing - but nor can it easily switch the venue for its season finale.
It has had three separate cancellations as part of its 2024 calendar. The Argentine Grand Prix was never replaced, the Kazakhstan Grand Prix was postponed and provisionally took the slot of the cancelled Indian Grand Prix - and then too was cancelled, albeit did get replaced by a second round at Misano.
Ducati riders Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia are split by 17 points in the standings, which means the likelihood of the riders' championship not being decided at Sepang - something that would require Martin to leave with a 38-point margin or more - is very, very high.
"I believe that the championship the way it is, we need to have another race, for sure, for the boys," said Miller. "Two weeks in Malaysia would be perfectly fine by me."
Espargaro - though a good friend of Martin, who would theoretically stand to benefit from a cancellation - also said it would be "fair" if the title fight played out over two more rounds.
But Marini acknowledged there are "quite a lot of problems" in making an impromptu season finale happen. "It's not a matter of finding a place - finding a place is for me the easiest thing to do. But finding the correct place, then you also need to check with Michelin if we have [the correct] tyres or not... it's not so easy.
"I think that they [MotoGP] are trying to find the best solution for everybody, but it's a tough, tough job."
Where else can MotoGP race?
Multiple back-up plans have so far been floated - and some options are certainly more realistic than others.
A second Sepang round to complete a double-header weekend there is on the 'almost impossible' end of the spectrum - given that Michelin will not have a suitable supply of tyres ready to run an additional weekend on.
Valencia's tyres cannot simply be reused for another track, either, thanks to the asymmetric design for the predominantly left-hand circuit, meaning that the French firm will likely need at least a few weeks to construct the few hundred custom-made tyres needed for an extra, unplanned MotoGP race.
However, with the considerable logistical challenges presented by hosting a race at very short notice, it means that it would probably be unlikely anyway that another venue could take over from Valencia in that calendar spot - even if tyres weren't a factor.
And, with Europe's cold weather closing in as December approaches, the paddock favourite option is currently Qatar's Lusail circuit and its mild winter climate.
Set to host Formula 1 on the first weekend in December, it would be a relatively painless task to keep at least some of the infrastructure in place to allow MotoGP to head there a week later, giving the Lusail track the unique chance to both open and close the 2024 season.
