The MotoGP World Championship is a small traveling city which moves from one circuit to another from race to race. They vary from country to country, continent to continent, and many of them have very different characteristics that don't always make them easy to organize.
Life on the circuits is slowly getting closer to what we knew before the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, even if the resulting restrictions have made the work of organizing the MotoGP paddock a little more difficult. With around 3 people divided between riders, teams, company support staff, organizational staff, journalists and guests, the paddock is a small town that requires complex organization. It is managed by IRTA, the teams' association, an entity responsible for giving shape to the paddock, distributing the space available for each team and managing the entrances to this traveling city. It is a quasi-military organization which makes it possible to arrange the paddock, which starts 000 months before the race, to define the locations and the order of arrival.
Once the trucks are all parked, the stands set up and the hospitality units erected, the Paddock is a fascinating sight to behold. It measures around 40 square meters and consumes more electricity than an entire village during a Grand Prix weekend. In addition, he sees between 000 and 2 people swarming for each event: drivers, team personnel, journalists and many other people.
To access a circuit, you must have the corresponding pass (or accreditation). There are two types of pass: the permanent pass, valid all year round; and accreditations for a specific event. There are also different levels of access to different areas under each pass type, depending on the work carried out during a Grand Prix.
By the time early-bird fans arrive at the circuit on Thursday or Friday, the paddock setup is complete. The trucks are shiny and the hospitality and other tents are impressive. Everything has been organized since Wednesday. The evening before, many of the team's trucks were already waiting for the gates to open at eight in the morning to travel to their location, which was determined by the IRTA. There are almost 300 vehicles, which could cause real chaos without well-prepared logistics. This is why the first to arrive on site are authorized to park inside the circuit enclosure on Tuesday afternoon to avoid traffic jams in the immediate vicinity.
The first to enter are MotoGP vehicles, team trucks and hospitality vehicles, which are also the most numerous, followed by Moto2 and Moto3 vehicles. Also the pilots' motor homes, less and less abundant due to lack of space. In the past there were many more, but now the teams, organization, televisions and others require much more space, and many drivers can no longer bring their own motorhome. Instead, they have the truck option of GP Rooms, a company that offers a large and spacious room to rest and have privacy. They are also responsible for transporting their belongings from circuit to circuit.
IRTA has dedicated staff for each function. One of its members takes care of the entrance to the paddock, two others are in charge of assisting the trucks and another manages the motorhomes. The distribution of space depends largely on the size of the circuit, and no two tracks are the same. Naturally, MotoGP is the jewel in the crown and receives the most space, with each rider allocated a box and each team a space to set up their hospitality, while the Moto2 and Moto3 teams accommodate their riders in a single box. Depending on the number of boxes on each circuit, the IRTA installs tents in the paddock to accommodate Moto2 and Moto3 drivers who do not have space in the pit building. Therefore, the distribution of paddock space must also take into account the capacity of the boxes.
The results from the first race determine who will have a box and who will not, which has an impact on the work. For example, the Sachsenring, with its cramped facilities and very small paddock, can be one of the most uncomfortable circuits to work on.
Teams from the same manufacturer are generally placed next to each other in order to facilitate the work of the technical teams. In the paddock, the area that reception services can occupy is limited to 115 m² in the case of MotoGP, 100 m² in Moto2 and 80 m² in Moto3. So, in recent years, to save space, we have seen how many hospitality services have started to expand in height, reaching a spectacular size. However, the IRTA is generally flexible with space so that everyone in the region can get along, and teams, in general, keep their structures for several seasons, to amortize costs, since it is not cheap to acquire such facilities.
Dorna is also setting up a large portable office in the heart of the paddock, next to the control building. It is undoubtedly the largest facility in MotoGP, where the management team, all relevant departments, communication and maintenance staff, etc. work together. can be accommodated. There is also space for the Clinica Mobile next to the circuit hospital, at the best access point.
Once everyone is in their place, it’s time to gather. Teams spend between six and eight hours, depending on size and complexity, setting up the box and hospitality. And when they're done, they have to clean the trucks, because they have to be spotless. They undergo intense cleaning so that they shine for the arrival of the first fans, guests and television broadcasts.
