Photographed by us behind the grandstand before the last MotoGP race in Qatar 2019. A year later only Moto2 and Moto3 took place here. Many do not understand why 2021 should start here, where you can only get by plane.

Ezpeleta’s visit to Doha is involuntarily ironic

Even the first calendar from FIM and Dorna seemed alienating to most viewers in view of the anything but passed corona pandemic. We stayed decent at the time and cautiously called the first edition of November 6th, 2020 a “fair weather program”. But in the editorial office and shortly afterwards also among our readers, there were several pithier words about it. A start of the season in Qatar, of all places where the pandemic made a start of the premier class impossible in 2020 and then on to South America and then Texas. Many rightly asked themselves what that was supposed to be. But now Dorna-Zampano Ezpeleta went one better and became involuntarily ironic.

Dorna boss Ezpeleta (left in the picture) flew to Qatar for a meeting to discuss the security measures. In times of Skype and other possibilities of secure video conferences, an absolutely incomprehensible and, due to the journey of the over 70-year-old man, a more than questionable approach (© MotoGP).

Exaggerated the goodwill and done exactly the wrong thing

It seems more than grotesque when a 75-year-old goes on a flight to Qatar for a meeting on security in connection with Corona. It honors the Spaniard when he tries his best to pull off a MotoGP and WorldSBK season despite all the adversities. But Mr. Ezpeleta himself takes the precautionary measures he propagates ad absurdum when he flies around completely unnecessarily. The Catalan, born in Barcelona in 1946, is said to be an engineer, but unfortunately he does not behave accordingly. All health authorities in the world warn against unnecessary travel. However, the little man ignores all warnings and wants to do his own thing. Many now fear that the former track director at the Calafat Circuit in Barcelona (1974 to 78) has been abandoned by all good spirits.

At the Losail International Circuit – our photo of the only entrance for visitors, less than 2 hours before the first race in 2019. At the only MotoGP event where each of the sparse spectators could confidently be welcomed with a handshake without waiting.

Supposed security – a bad joke!
The alleged “strict safety regulations” of Dorna call for PCR tests before departure and upon arrival in Doha. An absolutely bad joke! We did not find a word of criticism about this, even in relevant sports portals. So at this point again as a reminder:
– Covid-tests are worth less than the paper they are written on (as they are only a snapshot of the test time).
– Mutations have already been discovered which the PCR test can hardly detect.
– Every unnecessary group and individual trip (as necessary for Losail, however) exponentially increases the risk of Covid-infection.
– The number of infections has increased in Qatar, thanks in particular to various international sports events
– Without air traffic, the virus and its mutations would never have spread so exponentially, perhaps even remained in China.

Fausto Gresini with his protégé at the time Marco Simoncelli before the start – the young man on the right in the picture died in a tragic accident in 2011 in the Sepang race (Malaysia). Team boss Gresini was already close to following Marco when he suffered a severe corona infection (© Gresini Racing).

The combined calendar WorldSBK and MotoGP

This is a temporary solution of limited durability. This was already foreseeable on November 6, 2020, even if we were possibly the only ones who had warned about it at the time. In WorldSBK, two events are currently missing completely. As in MotoGP, there is a huge question mark behind all events overseas. We were recently amazed to learn that the organizer ADAC is seriously expecting spectators for the Sachsenring in June. Ms. Merkel would probably answer this with a shake of her head, should anyone point it out to her.

The collisions between MotoGP and WorldSBK are shown in red, even if these are currently more of a theoretical nature. Races overseas are absolutely out of the question at the moment.