One week before the Argentine Grand Prix, big or small, the information is starting to rain in from the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit…
The most important undoubtedly concerns the partial resurfacing of the Argentina runway to eliminate dents. The latter concerned half of the South American track, with the first 4 turns, the area between turns 11 and 12, as well as the last turn before the finish line.
Sebastian Porto, emblematic Argentinian pilot who will also be the ambassador of the electric motorcycle during a demonstration tour, declared himself very satisfied with the result after practicing the circuit before and after the work. The dents have been ironed out and only a few seams between the old and new siding are still visible until the workers completely abrade them.
As a result, and even though the Argentinian Superbike round went off without a hitch last weekend, Michelin has decided to provide an additional type of tire both at the front and at the rear in order to avoid repeating bad memories from 2 years ago (destruction of Scott Redding's rear tire which led to the emergency construction and sending of new tires to Texas). Each driver will therefore have 4 models of front tires and 4 types of rear tires.
Regarding timetables, these are already available at the top of our Facebook and the Argentine Grand Prix is not impacted by the reduction in the duration of certain races.
In terms of logistics, all equipment was flown from Qatar to Tucuman airport. In addition to the usual Boeing 747 from Atlas Air, Argentine spotters were impatiently awaiting a 747 freighter from Qatar Airways, but this was replaced at the last moment and, in the end, 3 Boeing 777s from the Qatari company were carried out the transfer of 270 tonnes of equipment (motorcycles, cars, television equipment, boxes, tools, etc.) before it was brought by 40 trucks to the circuit.
A local company provided the 90 scooters intended for the organization while this year the trophy will take the form of a brake disc.
We expect a new spectator attendance record and weather offering temperatures oscillating between 25 and 30 degrees with some small risk of very localized rain.
Even if Valentino Rossi remains the undisputed star in Argentina (we remember that he wore Diego Maradona's jersey in 2015), the venue for the stage is called gabriel rodrigo, who benefits from dual Spanish-Argentinian nationality.
Andrea Dovizioso, Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi, Cal Crutchlow, Danilo Petrucci et John Zarco will be the guests of the pre-event press conference next Thursday.
