A provisional calendar for the 2024 MotoGP World Championship has been published, featuring 22 events.
22 events means 44 races in today’s Sprint era of Grand Prix racing, and they are all set to take place between March and November next year.
2024 is the first year of MotoGP’s transition to sustainable fuels, as it will begin using 40 per cent non-fossil fuel, before a transition to 100 per cent non-fossil in 2027.
In an attempt to emphasise its apparent commitment to sustainability, MotoGP has tried to design its 2024 calendar in such a way that it maximises efficiency.
Qatar returns to its season-opening slot on 10 March next year. It had to miss out on opening the season this year due to F1-oriented upgrades at the Lusail International Circuit which will host its second F1 race later this year. In the past, Qatar would have been followed immediately by a trip straight across the world to the Americas, before the series headed to Europe.
But 2024 will be different, as MotoGP will stop off at Portugal’s Autodromo Internacional do Algarve for the second round of the championship. It is worth noting, though, that this round, is subject to the track’s contract.
After Portugal, the traditional April Americas stop begins with Argentina on 7 April and concludes with the Grand Prix of the Americas in Texas one week later on 14 April.
Two weeks then separate the Texas race and the beginning of the European season ‘proper’ at Jerez, which will host the Spanish Grand Prix on 28 April.
Spain is followed up by France two weeks later on 12 May, before the Catalan Grand Prix on 26 May, meaning two Spanish races in the space of one month. Italy follows Catalunya one week later on 2 June.
Then we come to what is likely to be the major sticking point of the calendar: Kazakhstan; which was originally on the 2023 calendar before it was removed due to the Sokol circuit it was intended to be held at not being ready in time. For 2024, a Hungarian Grand Prix at the Balaton Park Circuit - which is also set to host a round of the 2024 World Superbike Championship - is a contingency. Hungary is planned to be a primary fixture on the MotoGP calendar from 2025.
Assuming there is a race in either Kazakhstan or Hungary next year, it’s planned for 16 June, which splits in half the gap between Italy on 2 June and the Dutch TT on its traditional end-of-June date (30 June, to be specific).
The German Grand Prix follows the Netherlands on 7 July and is set to be the 11th round of the championship. After Germany is the summer break, meaning that the championship is split equally, in terms of the number of races, between the first and second half.
More two-week gaps follow the summer break, which will end on the weekend of 4 August, when Silverstone will host the British Grand Prix. Then comes Austria on 18 August, and Aragon on 1 September. One week then separates Aragon from San Marino on 8 September.
San Marino concludes the major European part of the season, leaving only Valencia at the end of the year on 17 November. Between 22 September and 3 November, MotoGP will cram in its Asian tour.
It’ll begin in India, before heading to Indonesia and then Japan, which will form the first triple-header. A weekend off follows Japan before Australia opens the second triple header on 20 October. That second triple-header will be completed by Thailand and Malaysia, before the Valencia finale two weeks after the Sepang stop on 17 November.
The first 11 races, then, will take place over the course of almost four months, and the second 11 will take place over the course of just over three months. It remains true, though, that MotoGP finds itself with yet another incredibly end-heavy calendar, with the final seven races taking place over the course of nine weeks, which itself includes a sequence of six races in seven weeks, mirroring this year’s calendar.
That intense ending to the season just began for the 2023 championship with last weekend’s Indian Grand Prix and continues this upcoming weekend (29 September - 1 October) with the Japanese Grand Prix at the Mobility Resort Motegi.
