MotoGP organizers Dorna announced on Wednesday that the Argentinean Grand Prix will be cancelled because its promoter can’t guarantee to ‘provide services required for the Grand Prix to take place.’
Rumours abounded recently that the event, which takes place at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit in the Northern territory of the country, was at risk of being canned. This is because Argentina’s new president, Javier Milei, has been making big cuts to non-essential services throughout the nation.
With the Argentinean motorcycle GP making use of significant government funding to host the event, there were fears it would also be on the hit list of Milei. This scenario seems to have come to pass, with Dorna stating the 2024 edition of the race has been cancelled as its promoter cannot guarantee it can provide the necessary resources to host it to “MotoGP standards.”
The Spanish organisation’s brief statement confirmed that the event will not be replaced, leaving a three-week gap between the Portuguese GP at the end of March and the Americas GP in mid-April. It also added that it is hoping to return to the country in 2025, though this will likely hinge on whether the country relaxes some of its financial cutbacks. The 2024 MotoGP fixture drops from 22 to 21 events as a result.
The Argentina event has only missed two races since making its comeback to the schedule back in 2014, in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It returned to the calendar in 2022 following extensive rebuilding work after a devastating fire that destroyed its pit building and accompanying structures.
KTM’s Brad Binder and VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi shared the spoils during last year’s race weekend. The former secured victory in the Saturday sprint, while the latter secured his maiden premier class victory in Sunday’s full-length encounter.
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