The MotoGP paddock reacted, as expected, somewhat subduedly to the news that the iconic Phillip Island circuit will drop off the calendar in 2027 and be replaced with a new street circuit design in Adelaide, when much of the grid had their first chance to speak to media ahead of this weekend\u2019s second and final pre-season test in Thailand.<\/p>\n
Not quite yet presenting the full picture of the grid\u2019s views with Honda, Ducati, and Yamaha among those teams electing not to take part in preview media activity, plenty of others still had opinions about the switch away from what is a widely beloved circuit – albeit while being careful not to criticise the idea of racing on a street circuit despite safety concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a punch on my heart,\u201d Fabio Di Giannantonio said of the loss of Phillip Island. \u201cI think it’s the most beautiful track in the world. I still believe that we can make something to continue to race there, because I think MotoGP deserves a track like this. Honestly, if I have to say that I’m happy that it’s out of the calendar, I’m not happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
That view was echoed by plenty of others, too, with Brad Binder calling Phillip Island “epic”, former world champion Jorge Martin talking about how sad he was to lose “the best track on the calendar”, and with Enea Bastianini calling the news \u2018a brutal loss.\u2019<\/p>\n
However, they\u2019ve all been careful to temper their reactions, with the universal consensus being that they need time before they can properly judge the circuit\u2019s planned Adelaide replacement – especially as new MotoGP owner Liberty Media looks to grow MotoGP\u2019s audience the way it has so successfully with F1.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you see the F1 in the past,\u201d explained 2025 Australian GP winner Raul Fernandez, \u201cif you see how they advanced a lot the sport, it’s for this kind of thing. I think MotoGP is in a really good way. <\/p>\n
\u201cI really agree with this kind of thing. Sometimes it’s quite difficult for us because we have a lot of things to do, but I think if we want our sport to be bigger and bigger, we need to make these kinds of things. So I am happy. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing that we have to see is the safety for us. If the track is safe, I don’t care about where we go. I mean, if it’s better for the sport, will be fine for us. I think it’s good because I am a MotoGP rider, but also I love this sport. If it’s good for the sport, I will be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, another recent first-time winner at Phillip Island, Johann Zarco, says that he understands the criticism of the news (including that aired by six-time winner Casey Stoner) – and that while he thinks a street race can be made to work for MotoGP, it\u2019s unlikely to be particularly exciting as a result.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhillip Island was unique,\u201d said the LCR Honda rider. \u201cI have seen the post of Casey Stoner, and I like the way he’s telling the things. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt will never be [truly] ‘street’ because we need space for safety, that you cannot really imagine to do it on streets. I guess to be able to have the safety in a place where we can see everything, we have to reduce the speed of the track, of the corners. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd this for a rider is not what is the most fun. Because Hungary is like this, and it’s still Marc [Marquez] winning, that is not fun for the others!\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact, despite many fans suggesting that the grid would call for a boycott of a proposal to race on a street circuit, only one rider raised such a suggestion.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo comments from me,\u201d laughed Trackhouse Aprilia\u2019s Ai Ogura when asked by The Race. \u201cI just feel like everybody’s been overreacting right now. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf the organisation said we will race there, we have to go there and see how it is. I don’t really care. Let them do it. <\/p>\n
“And if it’s too dangerous, I’m not going to race. If it’s OK to race, I will race. Still time. So, we’ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The MotoGP paddock reacted, as expected, somewhat subduedly to the news that the iconic Phillip Island circuit will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-492695","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}