Reports surfaced in the Bangkok Press on Tuesday that the local Thai government had decided to postpone the start of its new MotoGP deal with Dorna Sports until 2022 as the COVID-19 pandemic remained uncertain.
Last year’s Thailand race was one of the first to drop the original calendar when the pandemic first hit. The Buriram event was not on the revised schedule when Dorna decided to keep the championship in Europe.
Autosport asked both Dorna and the Buriram Circuit to comment, with both parties declining the report.
A brief explanation of the racetrack clarified the situation.
“There was a misunderstanding,” read the brief statement.
“In fact, the government announced that it would postpone the race in 2020 and host it in 2021 instead.
“We continue and look forward to hosting the Thai GP on our racetrack next October.”
Thailand first appeared on the MotoGP calendar in 2018. Both previous editions have proven extremely lucrative for the country – the race was supported by the local authority.
Much of the world is currently grappling with a second wave of COVID-19 as new and more contagious variants of the virus have emerged.
This caused problems for MotoGP back in 2021. The scheduled first test this month in Sepang was canceled in January when Malaysia declared a state of emergency over its rising COVID cases.
Dorna announced late last month that the US and Argentine GPs had been postponed to an unspecified date in the second half of the calendar due to the virus situation.
This prompted MotoGP to add a second race in Qatar – the Doha GP – to follow a week after the opening lap at Losail on March 28th. The Portuguese GP was scheduled for the third round in April.
On Tuesday, the circuit in Brno confirmed that there will be no race in 2021 because the necessary track work could not be covered.
Dorna also announced that they have moved the pre-season Moto2 and Moto3 testing from Jerez to Qatar on March 19-21 to ensure the entire paddock can be in Qatar for the first month of the championship.
