Brazil May Host MotoGP In 2014

Cycle News Staff | August 19, 2013

PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
Although the track still has to make it through the homologation process, Dorna has announced that the MotoGP World Championship will return to Brazil in 2014 at the Autodromo Internacional Nelson Piquet Brasilia.

Dorna Sports CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta visited the circuit on today, one day after the Red Bull Indy Grand Prix. Ezpeleta was joined at the track by key local officials, including Agnelo dos Santos Queiroz Filho, the Governor of the Federal District. Filho was presented with signed helmets from MotoGP Championship leader Marc Marquez and his brother Alex and Ezpeleta announced that the World Championship could return to the country during the second half of the 2014 season.

A proposal from Brazilian authorities and local promoter IMX, outlining the project, will be presented to the Safety Commission during the upcoming race weekend of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. It is then expected that the green light will be given to begin a full rebuilding project on the Brazilian circuit, which would begin in December and finish in April or May of 2014. In-turn, FIM homologation would take place to give final confirmation for a Grand Prix, which would be staged in the second half of the 2014 MotoGP campaign, according to a release from Dorna.

“Brazil is one of the most important motorcycling markets in the world,” Ezpeleta said in a release. “It is in South America, so the time schedule is very good for the television coverage, but it has also been a wish of the whole MotoGP family for many years and is a very important matter for us. Until now it has been impossible because, as everybody knows, the most important thing for us is safety.

“I think it is really fantastic. It is an important project for us. Right now Brazil is involved in many big projects, such as the football World Cup and the Olympic Games, so it is also very important for them – not just the Federal Government, but also promoter IMX which is one of the most important promoter companies in the world and of course the most important in South America; they are committed to doing a fantastic job.”

MotoGP last visited Brazil in 2004, when Makoto Tamada won the premier class race – called the Rio Grand Prix. Should Brazil return to the calendar in 2014 it will become the second new South American race host, joining Argentina on the schedule.