The chaos continues! Now, the Argentinian MotoGP round has also been postponed due to COVID-19, and so have World Superbike’s Magny-Cours and Catalunya rounds.
The changes come as international travel is disrupted in general over fears of the coronavirus. Italian riders and teams are particularly affected, as that country’s been essentially shut down, and flights originating there have been subjected to all sorts of restrictions. Logistics of moving all the bikes, equipment and personnel are also complicated by the fact that all manner of re-routing would be necessary, as the bikes aren’t where they’re supposed to be now, and therefore the whole chain would have to be rebuilt.
So, the Argentinian MotoGP round has now been set to run November 20-22, and the Valencia round is now running November 27-29. At this point, the opening GP race will be May 3 at Jerez, but there are certainly no guarantees of anything at this point.
MotoGP will also have to re-schedule its end-of-season tests, but is probably in no hurry to do so, as there’s plenty of time for things to change again.
World Superbike
World Superbike got its opening weekend in, in Australia, but the next round (Qatar, which was supposed to happen this weekend) was postponed. Now, the next two races, the French and first Spanish race, have been postponed as well. Catalunya will run October 23-25 instead of March 27-29. This also means Magny-Cours ended up shifting, from Sept. 25-27 to October 2-4.
Update: It’s also come out that the Le Mans round for the FIM Endurance World Championship is moving from April to September. The 24 Heurs Motos was supposed to run April 18-19, and is now scheduled for September 5-6.
