How the 2022 Argentina MotoGP was saved – and the questions it raises

It’s 6:41am on 1 April at Mombasa’s airport in Kenya and Flight BSC4042 has taken to the sky having had a valve in one of its Boeing 747-200 engines replaced overnight. The plane - EX-47001 - has been stranded on the ground in Kenya since Wednesday.

On any other day, a mechanical issue for EX-47001 would never have been a point of discussion. But on this occasion, it was one of five cargo planes carrying MotoGP freight from Lombok in Indonesia – scene of the second round of the 2022 season last month.

Just two weeks split the Indonesian and Argentina GPs – and the small matter of 15,983km. Such was the logistical headache of getting MotoGP from Indonesia to Argentina that, had the heavy rain not abated when it did on Sunday 20 March, the race was going to have to be shelved so the chartered flights could have been met.

All of those flights got off the ground on time in the end, but mechanical issues with two planes on their way to Termas de Rio Hondo would set in motion a chain of events that came close to cancelling the Argentina GP for a third year in a row.

One of the two planes made it to Argentina later than planned, but the cargo was unloaded on Thursday and in the paddock. But Flight BSC4042 was still stranded in Kenya await a new engine valve – two being shipped from London and Paris to bring the plain back into life.

But Dorna Sports, MotoGP’s organisers, had no choice but to cancel Friday’s running. While a lot of the paddock had what it needed, Gresini Racing – which fields current championship leader Enea Bastianini – and VR46 Racing had nothing, while Indonesian GP winner Miguel Oliveira had just one of his KTMs to hand and the likes of Yamaha, RNF Racing, Michelin and several Moto3 and Moto2 squads were missing bits – all of it packed in cargo boxes going nowhere in Kenya.

Several teams didn't receive bikes and equipment until Friday night

Photo by: Federico Faturos

Departing Mombasa at 6:41am local time – 12:41am in Argentina – Flight BSC4042 flew 4 hours and 44 minutes to Lagos for a maintenance stop, before going wheels up to Salvador in Brazil at 1:13pm local time. It landed at Salvador at 3:14pm local time after six hours of flying and eventually (now designated as BSC4043) touched down at the airport in Tucuman, Argentina at 9:45pm, when the cargo was unloaded and driven by a battalion of 10 trucks the 96km to Termas de Rio Hondo. At the track, seven forklift drivers got the freight off the trucks and into the possession of the teams, where the massive set-up work began. 

Most teams pack their bikes as they left them from the previous race. This will mean the missing Gresini, VR46 and KTM machinery will still be set-up for wet weather from the Indonesian GP – and the bikes will all likely still be caked in filth. Throw in all the usual maintenance and safety checks to get the bike ready, and it is a work load few would envy.

Further alterations to the schedule for Saturday were announced on Friday, starts of before 4am for numerous teams leaving Dorna with no choice. But any more hiccups with the flight, and the ultimate outcome may have been much worse.

While the effort behind getting the 2022 Argentina GP up and running is commendable, it raised several questions. The first was why it was deemed the best course of action to have Argentina follow Indonesia?

In a press conference on Thursday, Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta said it would take just one team to have encountered such problems for a schedule change to have been forced. In plain speak: if one team couldn’t race because of freight delays, nobody was.

While frustrating for fans and teams, and financially bruising for Dorna, it is a stance that has to be welcomed and appreciated. It shows how integral Dorna views all of its entrants to the show.

Such is the nature of the rules, there was no ad-hoc solution to teams missing motorcycles. Gresini runs two GP21 Ducatis, while VR46 runs one for Marco Bezzecchi. But Ducati wouldn’t have been allowed to just take a couple of its machines from different garages to make up the numbers. Flight BSC4042 simply had to get to Termas de Rio Hondo in enough time for the race weekend to go ahead.

Carmelo Ezpeleta explains the situation to the media on Thursday in Argentina

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

While technical problems happen at any given time to planes (just ask Autosport’s news desk of its woes returning home from Formula 1 pre-season testing in Barcelona in February!) MotoGP, once again, has been dragged into the real world by events outside of its control.

According to Ezpeleta, around 20% of cargo planes used to be chartered from Russian companies. But since Vladimir Putin decided to order his forces to invade Ukraine in February, Western nations have imposed harsh sanctions on Russia and Russian companies.

This – as well as long-lasting effects of the COVID pandemic - has impacted the number of cargo planes available to MotoGP.

“The situation with the flights is very complicated,” Ezpeleta said. “There is the main problem, and this problem has been growing due to the war in Ukraine. Many of the flights for the freight are from Russian companies and all these flights are forbidden right now.

“We've lost almost 20% of the flights available in the world and the biggest problem right now is there are no flights to be shared, because we were talking with enough time from last Wednesday into now to solve the problem. The problem is there are not more flights available to us in this moment, and we have no other solution than to wait to the valves to repair the flight in Mombasa and to be lucky to arrive here.”

The flight that has caused all of the problems is run by Aerostan, a company based in Kyrgyzstan. And the 747-200 aircraft it is using was put into service in 1987. Like it or not, the problems Dorna has faced getting to Argentina will likely be faced by other motorsports over the year as the sanctions that have been imposed on Russia will not simply be dropped once the war in Ukraine has ended.

While the effort behind getting the 2022 Argentina GP up and running is commendable, it raised several questions. The first was why it was deemed the best course of action to have Argentina follow Indonesia? Ezpeleta was asked if a calendar change in future will be considered to stop this from happening again, but this doesn’t appear to be on the cards.

The MotoGP logistics crisis doesn't appear set to change the way the series shapes its race calendar

Photo by: Federico Faturos

“Well regarding the calendar, nothing will make me more happy than trying to solve the number of races we have, the number of races of Formula 1, trying to [not] be in the same weekend, which is very difficult, or we reduce the number of races and this is very difficult because the interest in MotoGP all around the world is very big and then we need to make the number of races we are doing right now. It’s no question, as I always say, making the calendar is one of the more difficult duties we have during the year. Right now, we are trying to control things, we are changing the schedule or whatever, but I think there’s not any other solution.”

The current MotoGP calendar stands at 21 races and it’s a punishing jaunt. Argentina is back-to-back with Austin; Portugal and Spain are split by a week, likewise Mugello and Barcelona; Germany and Assen, while Aragon/Japan/Thailand are slotted in as a triple-header, with Australia and Malaysia also back-to-back.

Something has to give at some point, and more often than not it will be on the human side. Argentina offers a unique chance to sample a two-day weekend – something many in the paddock believe is a neat compromise to an ever-growing calendar. But most of the riders feel three days per weekend is better to maximise track time, while Ezpeleta doesn’t suggest it’s something Dorna will consider any time soon.

"I think if you have experience, you can enjoy only two days because if the bike is ready and you have all your references on the track, you can maybe have more chances to have a great race. But to work and progress as a rider, and work better technically with the bike three days is always better" Johann Zarco

“This is okay but doesn’t change nothing - the race must be on Sunday and then it is irrelevant if it is Friday or Saturday [when we have other sessions],” Ezpeleta said when asked if two-day weekends are an option. “We didn’t arrive here because of a selection of problems in the freight, but a solution is not to reduce [weekends] from three to two [days].”

The weekend ahead for the crews whose teams have no equipment is going to be even more gruelling than normal. On track, this may well make things exciting as a lack of track time usually does lead to tighter grands prix, but the toll it takes is “not good for the sport” according to Pramac’s Johann Zarco.

“We were speaking about it, laughing with the team saying almost two days can be enough,” he said when asked about two-day weekends. “But I think if you have experience, you can enjoy only two days because if the bike is ready and you have all your references on the track, you can maybe have more chances to have a great race. But to work and progress as a rider, and work better technically with the bike three days is always better. Clearly if in the future they are two days, they [the teams] will save money because we spend one night less in a hotel. I think it’s not good for the sport, really. More for the show, yes, but not for the sport.”

Johann Zarco has raised concerns about the possibility of trialling two-day race weekends off the back of Argentina

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

The reality is, had two-day race weekends been the norm already in MotoGP, the 2022 Argentina GP would already have taken on a different feel. Assuming the amount of practice time was already reduced before qualifying, MotoGP may not have been left trying to cram two hours of practice into a day where many mechanics will be absolutely worn out by the all-nighter pulled to get things ready following the freight delays. The disruption to the schedule would have been less and the human toll reduced.

The events of Argentina will likely be largely consigned to the back of our minds as the season rumbles on and many (justified, at that) pats on the back will be had at the end of a hopefully successful (all things considered) event.

It can only be hoped going forward that the Argentina problems do force MotoGP – and other motorsports in general – to realise money cannot always be the priority. Growing interest in the series is fantastic, make no mistake. And Dorna’s efforts in recent years to still have a healthy US presence, return to Argentina and Indonesia, and add Thailand to its roster must be praised.

But the human cost of modern motorsport cannot be ignored and finding ways to ease calendar pressure are just as important as meeting new fans – not least in a world that has changed irreversibly since 2020. For now, however, that doesn’t sound like it will be the case.

Will lessons be taken from the Argentina MotoGP weekend?

Photo by: Federico Faturos