It takes realism right now. And the ability to quickly overcome what, at other times, would need long discussions.
One of these is the number of Grand Prix races that could be run this year. The contract between FIM and Dorna foresees 13, but this is in normal times. Today in coronavirus times that number represents a maximum, not a minimum.
Pit Beirer, the head of KTM motorsport, believes that a dose of realism will be needed soon in order to deal with the subject of the calendar: and that a season of ten races is now a more practical goal.
Pit Beirer: "With 10 Grands Prix we could have a world championship that works"
"If we could have ten world championship races for each class, we would have a championship that works for the teams, we could do a decent job for our sponsors and fans and decide the world champions," Beirer told Speedweek.com.
"It must still be our goal to keep the championships reasonable. But for this we need some freedom of movement."
While events such as Qatar, Thailand and Malaysia could be organized at any time of the year based on weather conditions, those same countries seem destined to maintain the ban on arrivals from Europe for the foreseeable future.
A return to a 'European' world championship, like in the days of the 'Continental Circus'
This could mean that MotoGP could be limited to the European races for this year. An acceptable scenario for Beirer, who however fears that it will still take several months before travel and public gatherings are possible on the continent.
“If we manage to get eight or ten GPs together in Europe, everything will be fine. It would be better than not racing at all. First of all, the travel bans must be relaxed, then events with spectators must be allowed again. This will take a bit longer. Europe has just started taking very severe measures which were important. Now we have to wait for the results of these restrictions."
The decrease in the contagion curve, with 14 days of incubation, has not yet arrived and it will therefore take some time before the trend reverses.
Pit Beirer: "As long as the number of patients is increasing, we don’t dare to speak about MotoGP"
“As long as the number of patients continues to increase, nobody dares to speak seriously about the new MotoGP season. But I hope we can use the data from China as a guide. Then we have a period of eight, ten or twelve weeks. If I now calculate three months starting from April, that is April, May and June, then from July in the second half of the season, a reasonable year is still feasible in both business and motorsport ".
An early July start would mean that another five MotoGP rounds would either be rescheduled or cancelled in addition to the five events - Qatar, Thailand, USA, Argentina, Spain – that have already been cancelled or postponed.
France has already declared that it is not interested in an event at Le Mans behind closed doors and Mugello, scheduled for May 31, could be next. If we follow Beirer’s reasoning, the Grands Prix of Barcelona (7 June), Sachsenring (21 June) and the Netherlands (28 June) will also be cancelled.
The first GP of the season could therefore be hosted in Finland on the Kymiring circuit. A new location which, however, presents some logistical difficulties since it does not have a large hotel accommodation capacity.