The confirmation that the Friday session of the Termas de RÃo Hondo weekend was going to be suspended due to the delay in the arrival of one of the planes that was to bring the equipment material to Argentina, forced the CEO of Dorna, Carmelo Ezpeleta , to offer explanations this Thursday from the circuit.
“One of the five flights had a problem in Mombasa and we decided that one of the planes that had already arrived in Termas should return to Lombok, unfortunately that plane had a problem again in Kenya, in principle it was supposed to arrive yesterday, but the problem is more serious than previously thought and we have requested two spare parts to fix it, and if all goes well, in theory the flight will arrive on time to be able to meet the new schedule on Saturday,” he explained.
However, the spare plane is still in Mombasa, Kenya , and has to be repaired, fly to Lombok, load the material and return to Termas, making a stopover, so nothing and no one ensures that this plane will arrive at some point in Argentina. .
“It’s a good question, we will have the information and if the flight takes off at the scheduled time everything will be fine,” said the executive, avoiding ensuring that the plane will arrive on time to continue with the grand prize.
“We have learned a lot in 30 years of experience on this type of flight, many of these planes are from Russian companies, 20%, and now they cannot be hired because of the war. The problem is that there are no more planes available, we can only wait.” to the repair of the valves of the plane that is in Mombasa”, he underlined.
The suspension of a full day of Grand Prix opens to consider the number of races on the MotoGP calendar, 21 for this year, and the multiple trips with all the material.
“Perhaps we need to reconsider these races that are consecutive, but it is not the case, there was a week in between, they are problems that arise unforeseen, to be frank this grand prix is the 499 that we organize and it is the first time that we face this problem, it’s not positive but it’s the first time. The goal is to race in Argentina, and in Austin next week,” Ezpeleta reiterated.
Regarding the lack of flexibility in this type of aircraft, Ezpeleta explained the problem. “There are about 140 flights available in the world for cargo, but we need special ones and it is not easy to change from one plane to another. It is unfortunate but we are used to solving any problem, we have to accept it, as we accept the weather conditions when they occur.”
Despite the serious problem, Ezpeleta does not think about rethinking the calendar in the future.
“The calendar for us would be fantastic to be able to organize them better, but with all the races we have it is difficult to do it in another way, we are going to continue with the current number of grand prix, we do not plan to reduce it. Organizing the calendar is difficult, the most difficult of our work,” he said.
About the affected teams, which you can consult here, he did not want to give more details.
“Everyone has to enjoy the same conditions and although it does not affect everyone, the changes will be the same for everyone,” he settled.
Another issue that they raised with the executive is the reduction of the grand prizes from three to two days, something that Ezpeleta pointed out had nothing to do with what happened.
“It would be fine but I wouldn’t change anything, the race is on Sunday and it doesn’t matter if we start Friday or Saturday, we haven’t arrived on time due to a flight problem, not because we started on Friday,” the appearance ended.
