MotoGP looking for Indian GP says Dorna chief
Dorna chief executive Carmelo Ezpeleta says he wants to bring MotoGP to the world's second largest motorcycle market India.
Dorna and Ezpeleta labels India a 'very, very important market' for the sport and has been looking to add an Indian Grand Prix to the race calendar within the couple of years.
Formula 1 has recently raced in India, with the sport enjoying three Grand Prixs at the Buddh International Circuit, situated near New Delhi, between 2011-2013. However, F1 dropped the Grand Prix from the calendar last year after problems with taxation and bureaucracy proving too difficult to see races return to the country.
Ezpeleta is confident MotoGP would prove more of an attractive option to the Indian public, who represent the second largest motorcycle market in the world.
"It's different, Formula One is another aspirational level. Motorbikes are something very popular in India and are much closer to normal people," Ezpeleta told Reuters. "We need to focus on different things here, like we have no [local] promoter. But the cost of organising a MotoGP race is less than Formula One and we have a manufacturer in Mahindra who are participating in Moto3."
Mahindra represent India on the MotoGP circuit in the Moto3 category and the constructor will supply bikes to four teams in 2015. Ezpeleta also said the sport would need a homegrown rider to join the grid if it were to prosper in India.
"We need three things to be successful in a country like India. First a manufacturer being part of the deal and in this case we have Mahindra," he explained. "Secondly, we need to have Indian riders but unfortunately we have none presently and for that we have the Asian talent cup. And finally we need to have a Grand Prix.
"I think we are putting all our first steps right to be successful in India but nothing is easy from the beginning. We have a lot of demand for Grand Prix all around the world, especially from Asia, and we are talking to different countries."
India previously attempted to host a World Superbike event - a series which has since been acquired by Dorna -, but logistical issues forced the original date to be rescheduled before it was dropped altogether.
