The big news for 2017 regarding this Qatar Grand Prix is that, even if it rains, the MotoGP riders are supposed to race. A decision made possible by the observations made by Loris Capirossi and Franco Uncini: curiously, the reflections of the spotlights on the wet track would no longer dazzle the drivers and the track, usually very slippery with the mixture of water and dust from the desert, would present a correct grip…
However, if rain is a fairly rare thing in the Qatari desert, this year it is present enough to have already disrupted the official IRTA Moto2 and Moto3 tests on several occasions.
Therefore, it does not seem pointless to wonder what things would be like in the event of rain. And there, according to our information, we enter into a more complex subject than what it appears at first glance...
– If rain occurs on Thursday, Friday or Saturday: the sessions will take place normally with rain tires (without a rear red light so as not to dazzle more), then the drivers will be asked for their opinion on the possibility of racing at night on a wet track.
– If the rain only appears on Sunday, we will then organize an additional test session after which we will ask the same question to the drivers. According to our information, this session should last 50 minutes.
However, it would seem that if some of the satellite drivers are already ready to face difficult conditions to try to show off, the rest of the field, the factory drivers, would clearly lean towards not riding in the rain , although there probably remains uncertainty regarding Andrea Dovizioso and Valentino Rossi…
The current rumor is that the Race Direction would only take the decision to start the event with the unanimous agreement of all the drivers, so it seems more than likely that in the event of heavy rain, it will be straight away. First postponed, as in 2009, or even canceled.
Ultimately, if we take into account the low probability of heavy rain on Sunday evening as well as the uncertainty regarding the final decision of the pilots and the authorities, there is therefore very little chance or, alternatively, risk, of attend a Qatar Grand Prix in the rain…
But let's stay positive and watch weather, for the moment still too imprecise to form an idea.
It will be recalled that the question does not arise for Moto2 and Moto3, which are much less interesting in terms of media coverage: they will not run in the rain.
