It’s still likely to be some time before the 2025 MotoGP calendar is officially announced, with the normal release date usually around the time of the San Marino Grand Prix in September.
But with a few details starting to trickle out, we’re in a position where we can start to speculate about what next year will look like amid what’s set to be quite a substantial shake-up.
The first part of that new look came last weekend at the British Grand Prix, when Silverstone announced that its date would be moving forward two months to the final bank holiday weekend of May, a decision made at the behest of Dorna as it prepares for the wider calendar overhaul.
Those changes were hinted at in the announcement of the May 23-25 race date, with Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta hinting at a bigger reshuffle.
“As part of what will be a new-look 2025 calendar for us in some ways, we’re excited to celebrate the British GP at a different time of year outside the holiday period giving even more British fans the opportunity to come to Silverstone," he said.
“As everyone knows, MotoGP is enjoying a strong trend of positive growth for audiences and crowds around the world. We want to ensure this event, in a key market, gets the platform and exposure to enable it to play an even bigger role in that.”
So what does that mean? Well, we’ve already known for a while that the start of the 2025 season would be a little different, with traditional season opener Qatar set to miss out on hosting the first race for the second time in three years.
Unable to host an early round last year thanks to extensive renovation work at the Lusail circuit and instead taking place in November before MotoGP returned again in March this year, the timing of the Muslim religious festival Ramadan means that the track can again not hold the season-opener next year.
Instead it was originally speculated that the many-times postponed Indian Grand Prix would instead host it, a welcome relief to the paddock thanks to the temperatures faced in the inaugural trip there last September.
However that plan has been dialled back recently by Dorna sporting director Carlos Ezpeleta, who has suggested that it’ll instead be a different round that opens the season - something that could potentially mean the championship instead kicks off at a southern European circuit such as Jerez or 2023 opener venue Portimao.
The biggest question mark over the calendar, though, might well be what doesn’t happen rather than what does. 2024 has been framed by cancelled races, more than anything else, with four races so far rearranged or scrapped altogether.
Whether the likes of Kazakhstan's rearranged Sokol circuit (or even the Indian round, after past issues) make an appearance remains to be seen - but should they be listed on the draft schedule, it’s hard to imagine that the initial calendar will be treated as gospel.
