There has been yet another change to the MotoGP calendar for 2021. As had been expected, the Malaysian Grand Prix scheduled for October 24th at the Sepang International Circuit has been canceled.
In its place will be an extra race at the Misano circuit in Italy. Misano will be the second circuit, after Portimão, which will host two races this year, but not back to back.
Austin is back on the MotoGP calendar. Today, the FIM announced that the Motegi round of MotoGP has been canceled, as travel to Japan is still very difficult, with the Circuit of the Americas being put in its place on October 3rd.
The changes have obviously been made in response to the pandemic, and as COVID-19 continues to be a problem around the world, more changes are likely.
The Grand Prix of the Americas, which had been moved to November 13-15th because of the coronavirus outbreak, has now been canceled.
The news comes from the track’s Instagram account, which states that the Austin round will return in 2021, on April 16-18th.
The cancelation of this year’s American round is of little surprise, as the COVID-19 situation in the United States grows more dire with each passing day, especially in Texas.
Ever since the opening round at Qatar, the schedule for the 2020 MotoGP Championship has been in limbo. And for American fans, this hasn meant a tremendous amount of uncertainty regarding the grand prix round held outside of Austin, Texas.
Though we are seemingly no closer to knowing if and when the Americas GP will take place, American fans have now been at least provided a timeline on when we will know: the end of July.
The Circuit Of The Americas has laid off a large part of its staff and is suspending activities indefinitely. In an open-ended and ambiguous statement issued on Sunday night, the circuit stated that with large-scale public events canceled, there was little for the circuit to do.
With both the MotoGP race scheduled for April 5th, and the Indycar round scheduled for April 26th postponed until November, there was little for the circuit to do.
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to be a wrecking ball to the MotoGP calendar, with now the Grand Prix of the Americas being postponed because of health concerns and travel restrictions.
The announcement coming jointly from Dorna, IRTA, and the FIM is not a surprise for those following the space, and just yesterday we speculated about today’s possible news.
With Italy overnight clamping down the entire country, and and cases of the virus continuing to grow in Europe and America, today’s announced postpone seemed all but certain.
The season-opener for the MotoGP Championship is once again under doubt, as question marks over the Americas GP in Austin are beginning to grow.
The concern comes from several factors, including local government moves in Austin that happened last Friday, which saw the Texan city declare a “state of disaster” for the metropolitan area and surrounding county because of concerns regarding the global coronavirus outbreak.
Episode 13 of the Brap Talk podcast is now out for your two-wheeled audio pleasure, and it comes to you right after the Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
Shahin and I greatly enjoyed seeing and talking to so many fans of the podcast at the MotoGP race, Handbuilt Motorcycle Show, and the general Austin city limits. It really means a lot to us that you all enjoy the show so much.
As such, this show discusses the weekend for us, in particular what happened on and off the track. We gush about the MotoGP race, debate the bikes seen at the show, and generally plan where our next calories are going to come from.
There are only three certainties in life: Death, taxes, and Marc Márquez winning any MotoGP race organized in the United States of America. That has been true since the Spaniard moved up to MotoGP, and for both years he spent in Moto2 as well.
There is something about America which makes Márquez nigh on invincible. Is it the anticlockwise tracks? Is it the low grip and tricky surfaces found at the circuits? Or is high fructose corn syrup Márquez’ equivalent of Popeye’s spinach?
MotoGP went to Austin hoping this might be the year when things changed. With good reason: the racing in the series has been getting closer and closer almost on a race-by-race basis. Valentino Rossi finished just 0.6 seconds behind race winner Andrea Dovizioso at Qatar, but he crossed the line in fifth place.
In Argentina, the seven riders fighting for second place were separated by 3 seconds on the penultimate lap. The Ducati Desmosedici GP19 is faster and better than ever, the Yamaha M1 has made a huge step forward since 2018, and the Suzuki has consistently been in the hunt for podiums since the middle of last year.
That is all very well and good, but the margin of Marc Márquez’ victory in Termas de Rio Hondo suggested that ending Márquez’ reign in the US would require something extraordinary to happen. The Repsol Honda rider had a 12 second lead going into the last lap in Argentina.
The Honda RC213V had the highest top speed in both Qatar and Argentina, the bike having both more horsepower and better acceleration. Then, during qualifying, Márquez took pole – his seventh in a row at the Circuit of the Americas – with an advantage of more than a quarter of a second over Valentino Rossi. Normal service had been resumed.
For this year’s Americas GP, I made a conscious effort to get out of the confines of the media center, and to watch the on-track sessions for the MotoGP riders.
Part of this was because of all the talk about the track conditions, but the other reason is due to the fact that you can pick up on a great deal from seeing the bikes circulate in person, which is lost from the media feed.
Who is pushing hard every lap? Who is waiting for a tow, and from whom? Who looks comfortable through a particularly difficult section of the track? How do the bikes and riders compare on approach, apex, and exit? And so on.
For bonus points, I brought my camera long with me as well.
Episode 99 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and in it we see Jensen Beeler joining Neil Morrison and David Emmett on the microphones, as we discuss the happenings at the Americas GP.
In what perhaps the most entertaining MotoGP race ever at the Texan track, we discuss the surprise results, along with the implications that the round has on the championship standings.