The administrator of the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve (AIA) guarantees that it is the Safety Commission of the International Motorcycling Federation (FIM) that decides on the conditions of the venue and not DORNA, the company that promotes the MotoGP World Championship.
Paulo Pinheiro assures that every year a report is made on the conditions to be improved and the Autodromo has made these improvements. “At the end of last year we received a report saying we had to increase the lights, increase the turn 1 exit, there was a list of twenty and such, and we did it,” he recounts. The administrator considers that it is a normal situation and “throughout 15 years they have always done everything that was asked of them. If we have to change the gravel, we change the gravel, that is not an issue.” , He considers.
According to the German magazine Speedweek, Dorna, the promoter of the MotoGP World Championship, has threatened to withdraw the Portuguese Grand Prix from the racing calendar if the situation of the dirt on the escape routes of the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve (AIA) it is without change.
In an interview with the magazine, the Spaniard Carmelo Ezpeleta said that “unless the state of the gravel layers changes completely, there will be no MotoGP race. [no Algarve] next year”.
At issue is the size of the stones used in the gravel that fills the exhausts of the Algarve circuit and that serves to reduce the speed of vehicles that leave the track or drivers who fall. The size of the stones has drawn criticism from MotoGP riders since 2022, considering that they are too large and that they cause injuries to riders who fall.
Speaking to TSF, Carmelo Ezpeleta considers that his statements were taken out of context. “The Safety Commission came to me to tell me that the drivers were complaining a lot about the size of the gravel in the exhausts and I told them not to worry, because the circuit had to be homologated again and it would not be homologated otherwise. I don’t have the new gravel,” he stated. “But that’s standard procedure everywhere. The important thing is not to take it out of context, ”he added.
The person in charge of DORNA affirmed that in all the circuits, every year, there are measures that are dictated and the promoter has to comply. “In this case it is to change the gravel, but it is not to accentuate it as if it were not going to be done, that was the journalist’s interpretation of what was said in the security commission,” said Carmelo Ezpeleta.
Source: TSF
