2015 MotoGP Provisional Calendar Released

The first of the official announcements to be made over this weekend has arrived. Today, the FIM released the provisional version of the 2015 calendar for MotoGP. The schedule is a virtual carbon copy of the 2014 calendar this year, with the order of the races the same as this year.

A few minor tweaks have been applied to the calendar: the series kicks off in Qatar on March 29th, a week later than originally planned to avoid a TV clash with the soccer game between Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain. Two weeks later, the circus heads to Austin, and the following week to Argentina.

Having the two races in the Americas back-to-back will create a much easier schedule than this year, where the teams faced a very long journey back from Argentina to arrive on time for Jerez. With a year of experience under their belt, Dorna’s logistics and TV crew are now certain they can get the Termas de Rio Hondo track ready within the few days they have after Austin.

The series then heads to Europe, and an almost identical schedule through to the summer break. After a four-week break, MotoGP returns at Indianapolis on August 9th, before returning to Brno the week after. From Brno, the series heads to Donington, the only major change on the calendar, after the British GP was switched from Silverstone.

The remaining races are in the same sequence, and at the same time as this year, the series heading to Misano and Aragon, before the three flyaways to Motegi, Phillip Island and Sepang. The 2015 season then wraps up at Valencia, on November 8th.

The big name missing from the calendar is Brazil. MotoGP had been hoping to add a Brazilian round of the series for next season, and had been speaking to the Autodromo Ayrton Senna at Goiania. However, the track is not ready to host a MotoGP race, and in the aftermath of the World Cup in 2014, and with the Olympics in 2016, there is little leeway to spend the money upgrading the circuit to get it up to MotoGP standard.

The released calendar is still provisional, though few changes are likely. There are question marks over the date of the British GP, as August 30th is a Bank Holiday weekend, with Monday the 31st an official holiday.

This means that there are a lot of events that weekend, with all of them competing for resources such as security, temporary fencing, etc. However, moving the British GP to a week earlier would put three races back to back, something which the series would not be keen on.

Below is the provisional 2015 MotoGP Championship calendar:

* Evening Race
** Saturday Race

Source: FIM; Photo: © 2014 Scott Jones / Photo.GP – All Rights Reserved

This article was originally published on MotoMatters, and is republished here on Asphalt & Rubber with permission by the author.