Covid hit the World Cup hard, and the various restrictions imposed by the pandemic have had a significant impact on revenues. We’re not only talking about the tracks and the championship organizers, who had to hold some Grand Prix behind closed doors or with a few spectators, but also about the teams. In each category you have budgets from smaller sponsors and survival is not easy.
Petronas, who decided to give up MotoGP, is the most noticeable case that resulted in the closure of their Moto2 and Moto3 teams, but many other teams are in trouble. In the paddock in Aragon, the rumor is spreading that the Gresini team has to rethink its plans for the future.
For his new MotoGP adventure with Ducati, in June the team announced Flex-Box as the main sponsor, but the container company’s plans seem to have changed in the last week and in all likelihood it will no longer be part of the project or at least will no longer be able to guarantee the promised budget.
At this point a solution has to be found for the Gresini team, because MotoGP is very expensive and the Moto2 or Moto3 teams could pay the price for it.
However, things might not necessarily turn for the worse, perhaps with some cooperation. Flavio Becca’s leopard outfit has been thinking about the premier class for a long time and the forces of the two teams could combine. Miodrag Kotur, former Ferrari Employees at the time of Jean Todt and Michael Schumacher, now team manager of the Italian-Luxembourg team, were spotted in the Imola team structure.
Time goes by quickly and the first contacts are already underway.