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Carmelo Ezpeleta is undoubtedly the most reliable person to ask about the possible calendar of the 2020 MotoGP season. The events of recent days related to the spread of the cursed Covid-19 infection have obviously upset all of Dorna's plans and probably Ezpeleta himself would never have imagined being at this point, when for the first time he spoke about the situation to the journalists present at Losail, in a press conference that many of us will remember.
The CEO of Dorna has once again been speaking about the situation to our Spanish colleagues of AS, suggesting that however much the desire of the championship promoter remains to hold the maximum number of races possible, if things get underway too late on in the season it could force Dorna to downsize its estimate of the potential number of races to be held.
"Now the important thing is to get over it and see how we will all gradually get out of this situation - said Ezpeleta - when we know that the races can be held, we will adjust the season in the best possible way. It will depend a lot on when we start the season. It has been said that we have to do a minimum of 13 races to assign a world title, but this might not necessarily be the case ".
One of Ezpeleta's concerns is not to exaggerate with the number of events towards the end of the season, a period in which all the races that have already been postponed and those that may still be will inevitably be lumped together.
"We will do what we can without putting too much stress on the final part of the season, which is already stressed enough. If we have to change something later, we will do it. But the philosophy is to wait for everyone to be OK and that we are ready to go, so as to try to move forward when we have the green light. We are talking to the organizers of all the Grands Prix. We did it with Jerez, we will also do it with Le Mans and Mugello. Then it will also be the turn of Barcelona. If we start the world championship too late, we won't be able to hold all the races. "
The Dorna CEO also clarified that he is not at all enthusiastic about the idea of playing part of the championship in the middle of winter, effectively overturning the traditional calendar.
"We will see, but we cannot go too far into winter and ruin the 2021 season. I insist, it will depend a lot on when we can start this year. Maybe we will have a shorter season next season. When we understand how things are today, we will also evaluate what to do for the next championships, because the world will never be the same after what is happening now. The important thing now is to recover from all this soon, so that we are all well and we can work. "
Ezpeleta also spoke of the difficult economic situation experienced by above all the small teams, which could have serious problems even when the season resumes.
"I’m thinking of many things and I am talking to everyone. We are trying to help private teams so that they can pay all their wages. We know that the great value of the championship is the people who make up the championship. There is a very large group of people who work in the paddock and we must try to safeguard everyone. The Moto2 and Moto3 teams spoke to us about their needs and we paid them a contribution of 25,000 euros per rider, a decision made through IRTA. In MotoGP we are also finding solutions to be able to pay everyone's salaries. There is no fixed amount per rider for each team. You have to keep in mind what the fixed costs of the teams are and try to help them for at least three months ".
