The 2024 MotoGP Argentine Grand Prix, scheduled for the weekend of April 5-7, has been canceled, world championship organizer Dorna said in a statement on Wednesday. The main actors in the development of the motorcycle championship, including the International Motorcycle Federation (FIM) and the competition's team association (IRTA, the English acronym), limited themselves in the short press release to commenting that “the current circumstances in Argentina” does not allow “the necessary services to hold the Grand Prix in 2024 according to MotoGP standards” to be guaranteed.
The private organizer of the event, the OSD Group, in a parallel statement regretted the political circumstances that led to the cancellation of the event: “As a result of the lack of compliance with the contractual obligations assumed by the National Institute for Tourism Promotion.” (Organization today dependent on Ministry of Interior of the Nation), which are essential for the holding of the Grand Prix in the Argentine Republic, it has been decided to cancel the scheduled date of the event. In recent days, both the provincial government of Santiago del Estero, where the Termas de Río Hondo route is located, where the event has been held in the country since 2014, and the private investor group have tried unsuccessfully to save the situation.
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Sources from Dorna point out to EL PAÍS that the high economic costs of organizing the event were prohibitive without the support of the national government, one of the actors that in 2022 renewed the contract to hold the event in the country. “If Javier Milei wasn’t president, there would be MotoGP in Argentina in 2024,” says the Spanish company. Since taking office, the president has pursued a policy of cuts and adjustments in all parts of the state, leading to an atmosphere of protests and several general strikes in the country. Immediately after his arrival at Casa Rosada, the president reduced the number of ministries in half, from 18 to 9.
The Argentine GP was due to celebrate its ninth edition under the current Termas framework this year, following cancellations in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and in 2021 due to damage to the circuit's infrastructure following a major fire. Sanctions against Russia due to the war in Ukraine in 2022 also led to the interruption of Friday's training session when a plane carrying boxes of vital material and several of the pilots' motorcycles did not arrive on time due to a technical glitch and resulting logistical problems. A few weeks ago it was also announced that the Superbike World Championship, whose event takes place in San Juan, will not travel to Argentina this year either, since the 2023 edition was canceled coinciding with the electoral period that brought Milei to the presidency of the country . .
Dorna adds in her statement that she will not replace the Argentine round and expresses her desire to return to the country in 2025. The new calendar for 2024 now provides for 21 planned dates, also depending on the situation in Kazakhstan, a country in which the premiere could still take place due to the consequences of the turbulent geopolitical situation in the region. The company assures that this GP continues. In the event of a suspension of the Grand Prix in the Asian country, the World Cup organizer plans to replace that event with a trip to Hungary, which was set up as a reserve station last year.
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