MotoGP: The Qatar GP is going ahead, and the riders will have to be there, willing or not

The Qatar Grand Prix is confirmed, even though the issue is not yet settled in the paddock. At Phillip Island, promoter MSeg met with the teams and once again confirmed the event scheduled for November 6–8. The problem, however, has shifted to the riders: if anyone decides not to show up, the teams will be held responsible.

The meeting between the organizers and the teams took place after the riders’ gathering. They had organized that meeting themselves, without MotoGP’s involvement, to discuss the trip to the Middle East face to face and ask for guarantees.

The race in Lusail was rescheduled to take place immediately after Australia and Malaysia because of the war between Iran and the United States. This situation has put Qatar at the forefront of everyone’s thoughts in the paddock, with the trip just weeks away. The same concerns have unsettled F1, but in that other paddock, riders have even less say than they do in MotoGP. If the people running the business decide the race must go ahead in Qatar, then it will.

The teams left the meeting at Phillip Island reassured. The organizers offered guarantees, and in recent days Qatar has confirmed that both MotoGP and the subsequent round of the F1 World Championship will go ahead as planned. It is not just multimillion-dollar agreements at stake, but also the country’s image: through racing, Qatar wants to show the world that everything is returning to normal.

The teams, which are under contract with the World Championship promoter, cannot pull out without facing financial penalties. So, for reluctant riders to avoid traveling to Doha, they would have to take a direct stand against their own teams, which in turn hold the contracts with the riders.

Alessio Salucci, manager of VR46, confirmed to Sky that Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Di Giannantonio will be there as planned. Marc Marquez is among the most doubtful, but with existing contracts and the World Championship at stake, he too will obviously end up giving in to the pressure.

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