This Is The Reason Why The Mandalika MotoGP Rumors Have Been Cancelled

MotoGP Illustration (Twitter @motogp)

JAKARTA – The issue of the cancellation of the Mandalika Grand Prix MotoGP race has surfaced in the last few days. The cause initially came from a statement by the CEO of Dorna Sport Carmelo Ezpeleta as the manager of MotoGP.

The statement was related to the quarantine regulations in each of the countries hosting the 2022 MotoGP. Ezpeleta said that the races would be canceled in countries that required long quarantines for racing teams.

"We will not accept quarantine. If we were told to quarantine for 14 days, the answer was clear: no! We're not going there!”, said Ezpeleta as quoted from GPone.

Until now, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be one of the biggest concerns in the world of sports and MotoGP is no exception. Indonesia as one of the hosts this year is also in the shadow of a pandemic.

The increasing number of cases infected with the new variant of Omicron, which is predicted to peak in February and March, does not rule out the possibility that the government will impose a quarantine system for foreigners who enter.

If the quarantine system is implemented then it is clearly contrary to what was conveyed by Ezpeleta. Thus, the Mandalika Grand Prix could not be held.

The issue of the cancellation of the Mandalika Grand Prix received a strong response from the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga Uno.

Sandiaga said the government did not accept being threatened by certain parties who were ready to cancel the 2022 MotoGP event at Mandalika if quarantine obligations were still imposed for foreign travelers.

"I want to say here that we are strictly a state of law. Indonesia is a state of law that has implemented controlling the COVID-19 pandemic according to the best rules, and we have become best practice", said Sandiaga Uno quoting Antara.

MotoGP this season will hold as many as 21 series or the addition of two series from the previous year. The two additional series are Indonesia and Finland.

The MotoGP 2022 series will be held in Qatar on March 4-6 2022. After that, it will continue to the second series in Mandalika which is scheduled to be held on March 18-20 2022.