MotoGP to present European calendar, 12-13 rounds

MotoGP is set to publish the European dates and venues on its coronavirus-disrupted 2020 calendar 'next week', Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta has revealed.

Following a series of postponements and cancellations, the new schedule will run from mid-July (at Jerez) until the start of November.

A total of 12-13 rounds will take place during that time, including some back-to-back events at the same track. The addition of any flyaway rounds is to be decided by the end of July.

"The calendar we hope to present next week… starts, if everything goes well, on the 19th of July in Jerez," Ezpeleta said. "And the latest race on that calendar will be at the beginning of November, with 12 or 13 rounds.

"But races outside of Europe is something we need to decide, still.

"There will be a number of [flyaway] races presented - the four non-European races that have not been cancelled: Thailand, Malaysia, Americas and Argentina - for which we will search for approval and we have a deadline of the end of July to tell everybody if we continue with them or stop.

"After the first two races [at Jerez], we will see if the calendar will be 12, 14 or a maximum of 16 rounds."

The European events expected to make the final list are: Jerez, Brno, Red Bull Ring, Aragon, Barcelona, Misano and Valencia, with Le Mans a possibility.

Ezpeleta also gave an update on the safety protocol being developed for closed-door MotoGP events.

"We've made a very defined protocol, working together with the different Ministers of Sport in different countries we will visit, to have an idea from any of the countries what we can do," he said.

"Then in principle, any rider coming to race will have a medical before, and if the doctor decides they need to have a test, they will do it before coming to the first race in Spain.

"Then later, before coming to the paddock, there will be another test, and then a protocol with control every day, plenty of things in the paddock and especially insulation between each team.

"We have also some measures for places to eat and everything, in principle, where people are coming from the hotel to the circuit, and circuit to the hotel.

"Obviously this is for how the situation is right now, if between now and July, the situation in any country is more flexible, we'll allow for that.

"In principle, we want to isolate the paddock from other things and there will be no connection between the permanent people working at the circuit and the MotoGP family.

"Finally, the MotoGP family will be around or less than 1300 people and we have increased by five the number of members of each manufacturer for the MotoGP class.

"The numbers for Moto2 and Moto3 remain the same as originally stated."

Ezpeleta had previously indicated that 40 people would be allowed for each factory MotoGP team, 25 for each satellite team, plus 20 for a Moto2 team and 15 for Moto3.