This year’s Indian Grand Prix will not take place and the race promoters will instead eye a return to the MotoGP calendar in 2025, according to reports on Tuesday.
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The Budh International Circuit in Dankaur, India made its bow on the MotoGP calendar last year, but a rift has since grown between the race promoter Fairstreet Sports and Dorna. A dispute regarding the fee to host its inaugural MotoGP event amid an oncoming Indian general election on June 4 has combined to make the race’s place on the 2024 calendar fragile at best. However, a solution has been agreed for the Indian GP to forgo its place on this year’s calendar in favour of hosting the 2025 MotoGP season opener next March.
“It was mutually decided to shift the race to March next year. We are looking at the first or second week of March,” Fairstreet Sports CEO Pushkar Nath Srivastava told Indian news agency PTI. “All the stakeholders including Dorna agreed that the September weather is not conducive for the race and it is tough on the riders and marshals as experienced last year.”
Taking the Indian GP’s place on the 2024 calendar will be the postponed Kazakhstan round after the FIM, IRTA, and Dorna Sports announced new dates for the inaugural 2024 Grand Prix of Kazakhstan on Wednesday.
The inaugural Kazakhstan GP was supposed to have taken place in 2023 but the circuit wasn’t ready due to homologation works at the circuit. The 2024 edition was postponed due to severe flooding across the area causing a national emergency, meaning the race had to vacate from its original dates of the 14th to the 16th of June.
The Sokol International Racetrack will now host GP motorcycle racing for the first time on September 20-22 as the first race of the Asian leg of the 2024 MotoGP calendar.
