English
Italiano
After the cancellation of the Argentine GP at Termas de Rio Hondo, the 2024 MotoGP calendar still includes the appointment in Sokol, Kazakhstan, set for the weekend of 14-16 June, but the possibility that the event will be postponed by a another year cannot yet be ruled out. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo, however, Dorna boss Carmelo Ezpeleta himself is positive about the achievement of the set objectives, in the framework of a five-year agreement with the Central Asian country which would lead Kazakhstan to become the thirtieth nation to host a MotoGP event.
"From afar there is no problem with Kazakhstan - explained the Dorna boss - I'm talking to the organisers, the track is ready but some structures are still missing".
For the moment, however, only digital renderings of the circuit appear on the homepage, and due to "operational challenges" the first Kazakhstan GP was already cancelled last year. Located near the city of Almaty, the original design of the circuit was revised by the German architect Hermann Tilke, the same one who was responsible for the design of tracks such as those of Sepang, Bahrain, Shanghai, Istanbul, Marina Bay and Singapore and last but not least the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. With 16 corners and 4 straights, two long and two short, spread over 4.5 km of track, the Kazakhstan GP has an interesting pedigree, but with just under two weeks to go before the start of the 2024 season, all the pieces of the organization don't seem to be in place yet, primarily due to the lack of sufficient qualified staff among the race assistants.
If you do a search for the Sokol circuit on Google Earth, you can see the track but with many buildings still under construction. A structure to be completed. And on the track's website the Grand Prix is not listed among the scheduled events.
"The Kazakh organization will come to the Qatar GP with a large number of people - reassured Carmelo Ezpeleta - because there will be some synergies on the subjects of race assistants, everything is still in full flow".
It is therefore presumable that in Qatar they will try to resolve this and other problems behind closed doors. However, the option initially envisaged for the round in Hungary would remain beyond the realms of possibility, and the Dorna boss thus settled the issue.
"The new track at Lake Balaton cannot be considered, it is still far from being approved for MotoGP. We would not be able to do it in the scheduled time. If the Kazakhstan GP were cancelled, we would have a season with only 20 races."
