Austin MotoGP postponed, Argentina round one?

To no-one's great surprise, the updated MotoGP calendar announced last Thursday has already been amended.

Circuit of the Americas had been listed as hosting the belated first MotoGP race of the season on April 5, following the cancellation of Qatar for the premier-class and postponement of Thailand, due to government measures to control the coronavirus.

However, the City of Austin recently declared a 'local state of disaster' to 'increase preventative measures' against coronavirus, prohibiting events with 2,500 or more people unless organisers can 'assure… that mitigation plans for infectious diseases are in place'.

The South by Southwest festival was promptly cancelled and today's calendar duly confirms COTA has now been pushed back to become the penultimate round of the season, taking place from November 13-15, two weeks after the Malaysian GP at Sepang.

It also pushes back the season-finale in Valencia by one week to November 20-22, at Circuit Ricardo Tormo.

All of which means Argentina, originally scheduled as round four, becomes the latest circuit to take on the title of 2020 MotoGP season-opener, from April 17-19. However, Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta has hinted to AS.com a race may still be held somewhere on April 3-5, with a second Sepang event one of the possibilities.

Whatever the location of the first round, the lock-down on movement in Italy means some riders and team members will face added travel difficulties in reaching the event.

“Contractually with the FIM [we must do] 13 races, but our aim is to do all 19 remaining races… Maybe we will race in hot countries at Christmas!" Ezpeleta said during the Qatar Grand Prix weekend. “I will not say I am optimistic, but the only thing I promise to you is that we will work hard for any solution to make happen all the 19 remaining races.”

While MotoGP is reluctant to follow F1 in banning spectators from its forthcoming Bahrain GP, all options are being considered...

*Subject to circuit homologation.