Fresh doubts have been expressed by figures in the MotoGP paddock about whether next weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix can go ahead – as a looming re-escalation of the war between the USA and Iran continues to prompt meetings between the championship’s 22 riders and the series organisers regarding safety assurances.
The MotoGP weekend is set to get underway at Lusail next Thursday, two days after the US midterm elections – but this week has seen a series of warnings issued by governments and media that US president Donald Trump will seek to resume hostilities with Iran as soon as voting is complete.
Qatar, which hosts the largest US air force base in the region only a few miles from the Lusail circuit, was struck by missile and drone attacks in March when asked the US first attacked Iran. And Houthi forces have launched strikes from Yemen increasingly close to Qatar in recent weeks, amid continued conflict with the neighbouring Saudi Arabia.
The threat of imminent escalation first prompted the MotoGP grid to assemble last week in Australia for a rare all-hands meeting, before follow-ups in Sepang, first with their team bosses and then with MotoGP CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta.
“We cannot go deeply into details,” explained VR46 Ducati racer Fabio Di Giannantonio when by The Race, “but let’s say that the goal is to work with MotoGP to try to have the best safety, the best guarantees, insurances, for sure for all the members of the paddock, to do our job in a better way.
“I think it’s fair to try to help MotoGP and Dorna to improve our sport – not only on track, also outside and also in these kinds of things. So it’s not at all a fight, let’s say, what we are doing is completely a cooperation to try to improve everybody’s conditions to try to race there.”
However, any sort of guarantee of the 2,000-strong paddock’s safety is likely to be beyond the reach of the championship’s organisers right now, should a regional escalation cause airports in Qatar and its neighbours Saudi Arabia and the UAE to be shut down, potentially leaving the paddock trapped in an active warzone until such time as things once again cool down.
That’s backed up by increasingly severe government warnings in recent days, with a number of countries escalating their risk level for Qatar and warning that citizens should only travel there for essential reasons – as well as have a concrete escape plan for evacuation.
For the first time on Thursday in Sepang, there were even hints of teams refusing to take part in the race, with Alex Rins seeming to confirm speculation that the Japanese government’s travel advisory would prevent the country’s two factory teams – Honda and Yamaha – from travelling there.
“Right now Yamaha, I think, is one of the unique ones that they don’t know if they will go to Qatar,” he explained.
“I would like to talk [more] about it, but I can’t. The only thing that I can say is we are really united, all the riders, more than ever.
“To have the chance to sit with all the riders in Phillip Island, to have the chance to sit here with our team managers, today with Mr. Ezpeleta, it’s great, it’s great, trust me.”
