MotoGP social distancing, teams will be 'like a family in lockdown'
The biggest visual difference for MotoGP's planned 'c🌊losed-door' races at Jerez in July will be the lack of any fans in the gra🎶ndstands.
But the need for riders,﷽ teams and ot﷽her essential paddock members to respect social distancing rules will also change familiar pre- and post-race rituals such as the grid, parc ferme and podium.

The biggest visual difference for MotoGP's planned 'closed-door' races at 🥂Jerez in July wi෴ll be the lack of any fans in the grandstands.
But the need for riders, teams and other essential paddock members to respect social distancing rules will also change familiar pre♌- and post-race rituals such as t🤡he grid, parc ferme and podium.
A Dorna spokesman told wuqian0821.com that they are still finalising the exact changes needed: "We will try to host the GPs with the same format. All the [norma💜l] processes will go ahead with less people and contemplating all the [safety] restrictions of the local authorities."
Among those re🉐strictions will be the standard 'social distance' advice to keep a gap of at least two metres between people.
With that in mind,꧅♋ the grid procedure is likely to be similar to that used for a 'quick restart', when only the rider and one mechanic are present.
P༒arc ferme would need to be enlarged and perhaps partitioned to keep the celebrating riders and teams (if allowed) more than two metres apart.
Meanwhꦇile, might the podium ceremony look some🍰thing like the mock-up image above?
The usual presenting of trophies and shaking of han🌜ds by VIPs would surely go again🍨st current medical advice, but will the riders be required to wear face masks and what about the champagne?
Perhaps 🌟riders will be allowed to spray each other, as long as they remain confined to their own podium ste𓆉p…

Teams will be 'like a family in lockdown'
But social distancing won't be possible for mechanics💟 working togethe൩r on a bike. As such, each MotoGP team could be treated as a 'family in lockdown' together and won't be allowed to mix with the rest of the paddock.
"Dorna are defining a medicaꦐl protocol with all the instructions. What I feel is the team has to become a kind of a family. Like now, where we are all locked down at home and you only have contact with yo🍒ur family," explained Suzuki team manager Davide Brivio.
"Because inside the team, it's difficult to keep social dist♌ancing. It's difficult to keep mechanics two metres away from each other, or to keep the rider two metres away from his engineer.
"I can stay two metres away from the mechanics probab🦄ly and shout if I have to talk to them! But if ꦰthe three mechanics have to work on the bike, the bike is small.
"That's why we are very interested to hear the medical p🔯rotocol, and then we will discuss it and adapt all our jobs."
From what Briཧvio knows so far, he suspects the daily race💟 weekend routine will be as follows:
"It looks like we will have to do 💜[coronavirus] tests before we arrive at the circuit. Then, if everything is negative, we will go into th🃏e circuit.
"Once we're there, the team has to stay in the garage, or at least the garage and truck, like one family in lockdown&ﷺnbsp;more-or-less, avoiding as much as possible contact ཧwith other people in the paddock.
"It won't be like before where you c𒐪an go around the paddock, chat and communicate, and then in ☂the evening relax and meet friends. That's probably not the life for this year.
"We'll work in the garage, take a lunch box, have lunch, have dinner,🃏 go to the hotไel, go to sleep, and the next morning, come back to the circuit. That's the life for these days, I think."
But even with such a 'paddock lockdown' in place, Brivio emphas💜ised there will always be some level of risk.
"Let's be c🧜lear, it's impossible to have zero risk, inꦦ my opinion," he said. "The medical protocol will try to avoid risk. Because otherwise, if we want zero risks, we have to stay in lockdown until probably the vaccine arrives in 18 months.
"So maybe by the end of 2021 we can finally leave our house and start a normal life, once we get a vཧaccine. Otherwise [until then] we have to try ꦇto reduce the risk. So that's what we will try to do."
Quarantine for non-EU staff
Meanwhile, staff or riders outside of the EU face additional hurdles just to reach the circuit and, to avoid a constant cycle of quarantine, might not be able ꦦto return home until the end of the🎃 season.
Brivio said that while the majority of the Suzuki race team arಞe based in Italy, their closed-door line-up also includes staff from Spain, England, France and 'six or seven' people in Japan.
"The situation is not clear at the moment," he said. "For example, if you want to enter Italy now, you have to stay in quarantine for two weeks. That's what I understand from goin🌟g through various websites and regulations.
"If you are within Europe already - so for Italians, French, Spanish, probably English, German, whatever - you should be allowed to reach Spain without🐟 quarantine.
"But probably the Japanese staff will have to come earlier to Europe, do the quarantine, and then go to Jerez. Or probably go to Jerez, do the quarantine in a hotꦓel, and then get out of the hotel and go to the circuit."
The irony is that paddock members based in places like J🥂apan, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand or New Zealand will be facing quarantine despite arriving from countries with only a fraction of the coronavirus cases/deaths recorded in Europe.
Those same staff are t♊hen likely to face another two-week quarantine upon their return home, hence they may be forced to remain in the EU until the 🌳end of the (European) season.
Latest 2020 MotoGP Calendar (including free weekends) | |||
Round | Date | Race | Circuit |
8 March | Qatar (MotoGP cancelled) | Losail | |
| France (postponed) | Le Mans | |
| Italy (postponed) | Mugello | |
| Catalunya (postponed) | Barcelona | |
| Germany (cancelled) | Sachsenring | |
| Netherlands (cancelled) | Assen | |
| Finland (cancelled) | KymiRing | |
1 | 19 July | Spain (proposed) | Jerez (rescheduled) |
2 | 26 July | Andalusia (proposed) | Jerez |
| 2 August |
|
|
3 | 9 August | Czech Republic | Brno |
4 | 16 August | Austria | Red Bull Ring |
23 August | |||
5 | 30 August | Great Britain | Silverstone |
6 September | |||
6 | 13 September | San Marino | Misano |
20 September | |||
7 | 27 September | Aragon | Aragon (rescheduled) |
8 | 4 October | Thailand | Buriram (rescheduled) |
11 October | |||
9 | 18 October | Japan | Motegi |
10 | 25 October | Australia | Phillip Island |
11 | 1 November | Malaysia | Sepang |
8 November | |||
12 | 15 November | Americas | COTA (rescheduled) |
13 | 22 November | Argentina | Termas de Rio Hondo (rescheduled) |
14 | 29 November | Valencia | Ricardo Tormo (rescheduled) November seen as cut-off for European races |
| 6 December |
|
|
| 13 December |
| Mid-December seen as cut-off for races outside Europe |

Peter has♔ been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.