Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta says MotoGP will race on Mondays or Tuesdays if Sunday racing is not possible, in response to the outright cancellation of the British Grand Prix.
Rain and a newly-resurfaced Silverstone which struggled to drain water led to the cancellation of the British Grand Prix two weeks ago on safety grounds – the first time this has happened since 1980.
Talk of moving the race to the Monday, as done with the rained-off Qatar race in 2009, was rejected by most teams, a decision which Ezpeleta was perplexed by.
In an interview with Movistar on Thursday, Ezpeleta says MotoGP “should learn from” the events of the Silverstone weekend, and says he will tell the riders this Friday all attempts will be made to hold races on Mondays or even Tuesdays if running on Sunday is deemed impossible.
“It's a shame [we had to cancel the Silverstone races], but it's an experience we could and should learn from,” he said.
“We must think about what we can do so that it doesn't happen again. It's important that everybody knows that if the race can't be held on the Sunday, we will race on Monday or Tuesday.
“We come here to race. Tomorrow I will let the riders know that there will always be a safe race, always when possible, but safe.
“I don't like to change the rules, and this wasn't confirmed. From now on we will race on a Monday, if it's possible to race on the Monday.
“I will tell them to be prepared to race the following day. We must also tell this to the organisers.”
In the wake of the Silverstone cancellation, some have criticised Dorna allowing the riders to dictate such a move, as well as letting them end the possibility of postponing the race to Monday.
However, Ezpeleta says Dorna shared the same concerns as the riders in the Safety Commission regarding the track, and that the riders share a too “important” part in decision making to go against their wishes.
“The riders form an important part of the Safety Commission, they're a relevant part of it. At no point would we have considered racing, our criteria is hardly ever different to that of the riders."
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