The Austrian manufacturer's racing director is planning a reduction in racing budgets for 2020, so he has no objection to the MotoGP program being cut in half. “ We have to save money He says.
The Director of KTM Motorsport, Pete Beirer, explained that we should expect a status quo until the end of June and hope that the first competitions will take place in July. Peter Öttl, member of the Husqvarna Moto3 team, said: “If I am very optimistic, I hope for a new start in July. »
Florian Prüstel, owner of the CarXpert-Prüstel-GP-KTM team, believes in a miraculous resolution to the coronavirus disaster. “I hope that the Sachsenring GP on June 21 will be maintained “, he told Speedweek. com. “It is certain that races will be canceled, because it is no longer possible to organize them all, especially in crisis countries like Italy and Spain where there will be no races anytime soon. That's why I think and hope that the Sachsenring, Assen, Brno, Finland, etc. will take place. » But there are sixteen teams from Italy and eight from Spain, who probably won't be allowed to cross a European border in June.
In the MotoGP Championship, the following proposal was made: Four-day events, including two days of free practice, followed by a GP racing program on Saturday and one on Sunday, if the World Championship cannot be resurrected only in August or even September.
“I think 4-day events are not a desirable goal,” said Pit Beirer, Director of KTM Motorsport. “After all, who benefits if we race for two days? Is that why you have twice as many spectators? Do people have time to watch a free practice session on Thursday? When the economy recovers, we will all first have to work very hard to restart the economic cycle. So we won't have time to hang out at the tracks or watch TV shows starting Wednesday, at least not from the fans' point of view. »
“Let's not make the mistake of trying to put together a doubleheader in the second half. No factory or team will be able to afford this, because the entire motorcycle industry and the entire economy will suffer terribly now. This means we need to manage money carefully. »
“The savings that we are forced to make in the first half of the year, because we are not allowed to work or go to the circuits, we urgently need to budget for in the interest of the company, so that we can still allow us some sort of adequate program at the end of the year. But it must not be twice as expensive as the initial program we had before the crisis. »
“The use of sophisticated materials represents a large part of the GP budget, especially in the MotoGP category,” Beirer explained. “If I only participate in 10 instead of 20 World Championship races, I have a huge saving in this position. That's why I don't want to have twice as many races in the second half of the season as originally planned. Otherwise, all materials will be exhausted. After all, production is at a standstill – and no one knows how long that will last. »
The current 2020 GP calendar:
March 8: Doha/Q (without MotoGP)
May 17: Le Mans/F
May 31: Mugello/I
June 07: Barcelona / E
June 21: Sachsenring/D
June 28: Assen/NL
July 12: KymiRing/SF
August 09: Brno/CZ
August 16: Red Bull Ring/A
August 30: Silverstone/UK
September 13: Misano/I
September 27: Aragón/E
October 04: Buriram/TH
October 18: Motegi/J
October 25: Phillip Island/Australia
November 01: Sepang /MAL
November 15: Texas/United States
November 22: Les Termas/Argentina
November 29: Valencia/E
Without new date: Jerez/E
Source: Speedweek. com
Photos © Sebas Romero and Polarity Photos for KTM
