MotoGP Cancels the Finnish GP at the Kymiring for 2021

The Kymiring will have to wait. Today, the FIM announced that due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the complications posed by travel, the Finnish Grand Prix at the Kymiring has been canceled for 2021.

But in compensation, the circuit in Finland is to get a five-year contract to host MotoGP for the years 2022 to 2026.

Travel to the Kymiring was always going to be difficult. The Finnish Grand Prix is treated like a European round of MotoGP, but the logistics of getting trucks from Assen to Finland is not simple.

It involves either a very long ferry ride from Germany to Finland, on a route with limited capacity and which is often fully booked, or a very long road trip through Russia up to Finland, with all the customs complications that involves.

Add in the extra complications added by COVID-19 – at the time of writing, there is a compulsory 14-day quarantine for travelers to Finland – and the race poses too much of a risk.

To replace the race lost in Finland, an extra round will be added at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. The race is to be held on August 8th, with the race being given the title of the Styria Grand Prix, after the province the Spielberg circuit is in.

The calendar change creates the largest summer break in recent history, with a period of five weeks between the race in Assen and the resumption of hostilities at the Red Bull Ring.

The provisional calendar is shown below.

* Evening Race
** Subject to Homologation

There will be a maximum of 20 events in the 2021 season. All dates, events and the attendance of spectators are subject to the evolution of the pandemic and the approval of the corresponding Governments and authorities.

Source: FIM