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2022 promises to see a major shakeup of the MotoGP calendar. Today, one of the pieces that will make up MotoGP’s calendar was announced, with the news that the Rio Motorpark has signed a five-year deal with Dorna to host the Brazilian round of MotoGP from 2022 to 2026.

The new venue will see MotoGP return to Brazil after an absence of 18 years. From 1995 to 2004, Grand Prix racing was held at the Nelson Piquet Circuit in Jacarepagua, to the southwest of Rio de Janeiro, and before that at Goiana in the north of Brazil  between 1987 and 1989, before moving to Interlagos near Sao Paulo for 1992.

MotoGP could be headed back to Brazil. That is the news coming out of the Catalan GP, as Dorna and Rio Motorsports have inked a preliminary agreement to add the South American round to the MotoGP calendar.

If the deal is followed through, it could mean a MotoGP race in Rio de Janeiro as early as the 2021 season.

The big “if” in all this is the building of a new race track near Rio de Janeiro, which once it passes homologation, it could “potentially” be added to the MotoGP calendar as the Brazilian GP, according to a press release from Dorna.

“We would be thrilled to see MotoGP return to Brazil and this memorandum of understanding is fantastic news for the Championship and South American fans,” said Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO of Dorna Sports.

“We have a truly global sport, paddock and grid and to add another country to our calendar – especially one such as Brazil – is always something to aspire to. It would be a pleasure for MotoGP to race in a country and continent known for its passion and incredible atmosphere.”

The FIM has today released the final, official version of the 2014 MotoGP calendar. As expected, the Brazil round has been dropped, after it became clear that construction work at the Autodromo Nelson Piquet in Brasilia would not be completed in time for the September round.

To ease the congestion in that part of the season, the date of the Aragon round has now been pushed back a week, and will take place on 28th September, the date originally scheduled for Brazil.

Though widely expected, it appears that the Brazil round of MotoGP is on the verge of being canceled. Reports in Italy, on both Motosprint and InfoMotoGP, suggest that the company granted the contract to organize the Brazilian GP has not been able to secure the funding to renovate the Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet circuit in Brasilia, the Brazilian capital (not to be confused with the circuit of the same name in Jacarepagua, near Rio de Janeiro).

It was known when the contracts were signed that the circuit in Brasilia would need a lot of work done, both in terms of safety improvements and to bring the facilities up to Grand Prix level. According to the reports from Italy, no work has been done on the circuit, and the company involved is on the verge of bankruptcy.

The first major change to the 2014 MotoGP schedule has been announced. Though the dates remain the same, the order of the Asian flyaway triple header has been reshuffled, with Sepang moving from first of the three to last.

The Grand Prix classes will now head to Japan first, for the Japanese GP at Motegi on 12th October, before heading south to Australia for the Phillip Island round a week later, on 19th October. The weekend after that the MotoGP paddock visits Malaysia, for the last of the three overseas races at Sepang on 26th October.