Earlier this 12 months the Australian Grand Prix Company, which runs each the Australian F1 and MotoGP occasions, inked a brand new cope with F1 that runs till 2035.
As a part of the deal the Albert Park race is ready to be one of many first three races of the season together with a minimal of 5 season-opener slots.
That mainly locks the Australian Grand Prix into a March/April date for the subsequent 13 years.
A knock-on impact of the F1 deal is that the Phillip Island MotoGP spherical is now set to remain on the again finish of the 12 months.
The thought of an early season slot for the AGP within the hope of hotter climate has been publicly floated by riders for years.
It got here up once more this 12 months after the occasion was affected by poor weather. Heavy rain within the lead-up to the occasion left the monitor flooded on the Thursday night time earlier than follow, and whereas the vast majority of the working was dry throughout the weekend, ambient temperatures typically hung within the low teenagers.
The idea of an earlier date was severely investigated by the AGPC as just lately as final 12 months after calls from Dorna again in 2019 to evaluate the thought, nonetheless the race promoter is now dedicated to a September/October slot for MotoGP.
This is because of a perception from the AGPC that Qatar will return because the MotoGP season opener in 2024 after it was shuffled to the again finish of the schedule for 2023 attributable to upgrades on the Losail Worldwide Circuit.
Phillip Island, in the meantime, has been given an 22 October slot on the provisional 2023 schedule, the center race in a triple header with Indonesia and Thailand and a part of a five-race collection of flyaways that additionally contains Japan and Malaysia.
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Staff
Picture by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
“MotoGP has Qatar locked in as first race; that precludes January or February,” APGC CEO Andrew Westacott informed Autosport.
“We’ve got Method 1 firstly of the 12 months and we want respiratory area inside our organisation. Plus we’ve got to consider infrastructure and suppliers and so forth.
“So the appropriate time for MotoGP is that this slot. It is a slot we’re very snug with and so is Dorna.”
The push for a date change has all the time come throughout spells of chilly, moist climate at Phillip Island, with a collective perception from riders that situations could be higher at first of the calendar.
Nevertheless Westacott is adamant that, attributable to Phillip Island’s famously fickle local weather, the prospect of rain in March or April could be no totally different to September or October.
“If we put it in March or April, the climate in March or April isn’t any totally different to October,” he mentioned.
“Phillip Island adjustments many occasions throughout per week. Okay, you would possibly play the percentages and say the final weekend of October might be higher than the primary weekend of September.
“However I feel this slot makes it a standard end to the season. You’ve got the flyaways – right here, Malaysia after which again to Valencia. It really works properly.”
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