Kazakhstan’s debut as host country of the MotoGP World Championship is delayed again. After the cancellation of the event last season due to homologation problems, this time severe flooding in the region has caused the postponement of the inaugural grand prix in the country, scheduled for June 16, 2024. Dorna, The World Cup organizing company announced the decision this Friday, without yet ruling out holding the event this year.
“Unprecedented weather conditions have caused flooding throughout Central Asia, causing a national emergency in Kazakhstan and displacing much of the population,” the note notes. “It would not be responsible for MotoGP to add an additional burden to authorities and services as they work to help the tens of thousands of people affected around the country,” she adds. Dorna will release an update on the new date or final cancellation of the event when there is firm confirmation of its future plans.
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According to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations, more than 120,000 people have been evacuated over the last month due to flooding. The country’s president, Kasim-Yomart Tokaev, has defined the catastrophe, caused by heavy rains and rapid thaw, as the worst in the last 80 years. The floods of the Tobol, Ural and Ishim rivers have also affected regions in southwestern Russia.
For now, the MotoGP calendar in 2024 is reduced to 20 races from the 22 announced after the previous cancellation of the Argentine GP due to an internal political conflict in the South American country. The event scheduled in summer at the Sokol international racetrack, located north of Almaty, the most populated city in the country, has been waiting for two years for its final approval for the landing of the Motorcycle World Championship in the region. After being announced in 2022, with a contract to host tests in the country until 2028, the Kazakhstan GP was suspended last year due to the logistical challenges of the global context. The fragile stability in the region and the problems in the transportation of goods as a result of the war in Ukraine were a key element in that decision.
This season, Dorna was convinced of being able to debut the new calendar layout, theoretically having overcome all the obstacles in the homologation. The circuit designed by Herman Tilke, with 4.5 kilometers and 13 curves, began to be built in 2014 and received a visit from the then world champion of the premier category, Jorge Lorenzo, in 2016, when it was still under construction. It did not open until 2019, and work to host official International Motorcycling Federation tests had not yet been completed last year.
The new setback at the Kazakhstan premiere is nothing new in the recent MotoGP scene. In the recent past, Finland was also left without hosting the long-awaited return of the premier class to the country. The Kymi Ring circuit saw its event canceled up to three times between 2021 and 2023 before going bankrupt, first due to the pandemic and then due to homologation problems combined with the outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Although the Indian GP was able to take place last year, there are doubts about whether the event will be able to take place normally in 2024. If it falls off the calendar, Kazakhstan could take its place reserved for September 22. It would be the 31st country and the 75th country to host a World Cup event in the 75-year history of the event.
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2024-05-03 12:40:26
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