“I like to always be positive,” says Hervé Poncharal, president of MotoGP teams association IRTA and owner of the Tech 3 squad. “But the world is going through a very tough time. We are in the shit because we have no idea what’s going to happen in the near future and we have no idea what the 2020 season will be.”

“At the moment we are all – Dorna, IRTA and the MSMA – fighting like hell to imagine solutions and prepare different scenarios in order to be ready to race when we are given the chance. For 2020 the future doesn’t look very bright, but all around the world there are more people and more resources than ever before looking for a vaccine or a cure for this virus, so we have to look on the bright side.”

Poncharal is in daily contact with IRTA CEO Mike Trimby and Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta, while the MSMA (the MotoGP manufacturers association) holds weekly video conferences to discuss the problems of restarting MotoGP and adapting to a new economic reality.

“I think this crisis will show us what we really need and what are the luxuries”

Paddock optimists hope the 2020 MotoGP championship will commence in August, although the calendar will ultimately be decided by governments, not by MotoGP management.

If the racing does get underway in the next few months the MotoGP circus will be very different from its pre-coronavirus state. There will be no fans at the tracks, paddock personnel will be slashed by around 50 per cent and staff will have to travel to some races by charter flights, if numerous airlines collapse.

The main goal, of course, is to make sure that the actual racing doesn’t suffer.

“Now we are trying to work out what’s the minimum number of people we can go racing with,” says KTM motorsport director Pit Beirer. “We think a factory team will need maybe 40 people, so a reduction of around 40 per cent of the number of staff we take to racing, which normally includes management, marketing and hospitality staff. I think this crisis will show us what we really need and what are the luxuries, so we can reduce costs and still have a very high-quality show.

Independent MotoGP teams reckon they will need an absolute minimum of 20 to 25 staff. That includes seven pit crew per rider – a crew chief, an electronics strategy engineer, a data engineer, three mechanics and a tyre/fuel technician – plus a team tyre technician and a team suspension technician.

Similar reductions across all three classes should reduce the MotoGP paddock from 3,000 people to around 1,500. But will this be enough? MotoGP’s August fixtures are the Czech and Austrian rounds. The Czech government has banned large gatherings to the end of August, at the earliest, while in Austria gatherings are currently limited to five people, although bars and restaurants are likely to reopen in May, with capacity limits. Similar restrictions are in place around the world and some experts insist that large sporting events, festivals and so on won’t be able to recommence until midway through 2021.

Tech 3

“My big dream is still to have ten races this year, unfortunately behind closed doors,” adds Poncharal. “But if we only have six that will be enough to show that MotoGP is alive and kicking. There is no minimum number of races…”

Although Beirer accepts that MotoGP will have to restart without the roar of the crowd he doesn’t think that’s a long-term answer.

“I think we can survive for a short while with no fans, but going racing is all about fighting to get good results and then getting that great feedback from the fans,” he says. “We need to survive this period and then come back to normal, because we need spectators, otherwise the sport doesn’t make sense.”