2022 Provisional MotoGP Calendar Released: 21 Races In 35 Weeks

By David Emmett | Wed, 06/10/2021 - 16:04

The 2022 MotoGP calendar will feature a total of 21 races, starting in Qatar on March 6th and finishing exactly 8 months later in Valencia. The 2022 calendar sees further expansion of the number of races, as Dorna add new circuits and new countries to the schedule. For the Kymiring in Finland, that had originally been planned for 2020, but the pandemic put paid to that happening, either in 2020 or 2021. And the Mandalika Resort circuit on Lombok in Indonesia had been added to 2021 as a reserve circuit, but will now be raced on at the start of next season.

The season kicks off in Qatar with the traditional night race at the Losail International Circuit. From there, MotoGP heads to Indonesia, and the new track at Mandalika. It will be their second visit, after a test at the track to be held in February. From Indonesia, the paddock heads west (though freight may head east) to Termas de Rio Hondo in Argentina, which sees a return after the pandemic and a fire which destroyed part of the pit complex.

A week later, MotoGP returns to Texas, and the Circuit of The Americas in Austin. That is still subject to the circuit being resurfaced, though recent rumor suggests that the track has agreed to tackle Turns 2 through 10, the minimum required by the Safety Commission.

The Grand Prix paddock returns to Europe after the race in Texas, but in a change to the normal schedule, MotoGP will head to Portimão rather than Jerez. The race in Portugal will take place a week before the first race in Spain, which has been the start of the European leg for the past 14 seasons.

After Jerez, there follows the familiar schedule: from Le Mans to Mugello to Barcelona, with the Italian and Catalunya Grand Prix happening on consecutive weekends. Then to Germany for the Sachsenring, followed by another back-to-back with the Dutch TT at Assen. Two weeks after Assen, the paddock assembles at the Kymiring in Finland.

The summer break is four weeks - three weekends without racing - before another change: MotoGP heads to Silverstone three weeks earlier than usual, with the British Grand Prix taking place on August 7th. After the UK, it's off to the Red Bull Ring in Austria, and then Misano in Italy.

Two weeks after that comes a grueling triple header: starting at the Motorland Aragon circuit on September 18th, the paddock flies to Japan for the race in Motegi on September 25th, before coming west again to Buriram for the Grand Prix of Thailand on October 2nd. The paddock gets a week off, before another overseas double-header, the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island being followed by the Malaysian GP at Sepang. The season finishes as usual at Valencia, in Spain.

That is the plan, at least. As we have discovered over the past couple of years, reality has a nasty habit of interfering with the best laid plans of mice and men. The schedule is subject to change should disease, war, tsunamis, or volcanoes interrupt.

The provisional 2022 calendar appears below:

Date Grand prix Circuit
6 March Qatar* Losail International Circuit
20 March Indonesia** Mandalika International Street Circuit
3 April República Argentina Termas de Río Hondo
10 April Americas Circuit of the Americas
24 April Portugal Algarve International Circuit
01 May Spain Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto
15 May France Le Mans
29 May Italy Autodromo del Mugello
5 June Catalunya Barcelona - Catalunya
19 June Germany Sachsenring
26 June Netherlands TT Circuit Assen
10 July Finland** KymiRing
7 August Great Britain Silverstone
21 August Austria Red Bull Ring-Spielberg
4 September San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli
18 September Teruel MotorLand Aragón
25 September Japan Twin Ring Motegi
2 October Thailand Chang International Circuit
16 October Australia Philip Island
23 October Malaysia Sepang International Circuit
06 November Comunitat Valenciana Comunitat Valenciana-Ricardo Tormo

* Evening Race
** Subject to Homologation

All dates, events and the attendance of spectators are subject to the evolution of the pandemic and the approval of the corresponding Governments and authorities.

MotoGP
Moto2
Moto3
Assen, The Netherlands
Austin, Texas
Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain
Buriram, Thailand
Jerez, Spain
Le Mans, France
Losail, Qatar
Misano, Italy
Motegi, Japan
Motorland Aragon, Spain
Mugello, Italy
Phillip Island, Australia
Portimao, Portugal
Sachsenring, Germany
Sepang, Malaysia
Silverstone, Great Britain
Spielberg, Austria
Termas de Rio Hondo, Argentina
Valencia, Spain
KymiRing, Finland
Mandalika, Indonesia
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Comments

I might do the Asia quadruple. In an ideal world PI would be last so that you don't have to go Thailand, AU then back to Asia. This year I had a big milestone birthday booked in PI that would have seen me trackside on the big day. Hopefully next year I can pretend its 2021.

Anybody want to come live on a hobby farm for six weeks and feed some animals?

Thanks for the kind offer mate but I'd never push my issues onto you. I will push hard on the in-laws though, guaranteed! We're up in the Hunter region and the only negative about bringing a few animals onboard is that you're stuck when it comes to travel. I could just leave the wife at home I guess.. which would be dangerous in more ways than one!

Kymiring  Mandalika were going to be ready a year or two ago. Still "subject to homologation" ? Kymiring seems to be done, up and running. Mandalika must be getting close. If it is ready for SBK that will run in about 6 weeks surely then the paperwork is all in place?

21 races will be even more hectic! 18 seems a lot this year.

Phillip Island again Yaay! 53 weeks from now Boo! Crickey I'm glad I went in 2019.

Several events I would like to travel to. Indonesia looks interesting; bagus.

I'm native sasak meaning I'm from Lombok, about mandalika there is so many questions unanswered, I haven't heard anything about homoligation, I watch a YouTube chanel where somebody seems competend enough saying that homoligation was done for the first time ever using virtual by flying drone, I really don't know is this is true. At the end he said that actual homoligation will be held a month before race. This video was uploaded a month ago means should sometime this week. Is this would even possible? I mean look, I went to mandalika yesterday, and was companying a reporter of local tv, and guess what I saw, stray dog running around the sirkuit. this is just adds the seen of already viral photos of cows on the circuit a month or two ago.  The reporter claimed that she already bought tickets for herself while Ive been puting my email to MotoGP and worldsbk website to get one and still no info about it.  And let's say they will race next month, are these racers can race without testing the circuit? Up till now no news about testing this new circuit.  Any you guys out there new anything about this? 

Introducing the Indonesia GP is a good news for Thailand. The Chang Internactional circuit is located in the North East of the country which the weather is extreamly hot there if it has to host the GP in the same round as Qatar (Asia#1).

IMO, I think most of Thai motorsport fans are happy about the released 2022 provisional calendar.

There is such a thing as too many races. Not only does the value of each individual race go down, but now people are more likely to miss races, if they have a social life. And once they start to miss races, they are more likely to quit following the championship. 
I think the MotoGP organisers should be careful not to be too greedy. It may backfire. And that's not even mentioning the extra toll for riders and crews.

These guys are paid *very* good money to travel, race and work. Dorna are trying to grow the sport both financially and by sinking their claws into new markets. The more races they run, the more both of these things tick over the coffers. This is a net positive for the sport. The concept of them "burning out" due to actually doing their job is overstated as the more events they run, the more everyone makes a buck - the teams, the factories, the sponsors, the journalists. To top it off the fans then get more entertainment to watch at their leisure. MotoGP is an extremely complicated exercise in marketing and it sometimes pays to not lose sight of that.

To compare/contrast, take a look at the "burn out" of other extremely well paid athletes from the NBA.

- Regular season runs October 19 thru April 16.
- Each team plays 82 regular season games (41 home/41 away) often playing 4-5 times per week with an intense domestic travel schedule.
- Playoffs begin April 16 - NBA Finals Game 7 would be June 19.
- NBA Draft starts four days later.
- Pre-season starts 1st October (rinse/repeat).

This game destroys the body - feet, ankles, knees, elbows, wrists and hips. But this is their schedule and dealing with burn-out and managing physical exhaustion is all part of the game. Teams/Players that manage this the best find themselves still amongst it late-season. Just look at what Marc is having to do this year in managing his physical limitations to remain competitive and yet he still does it. He accepts it as a part of his journey to compete and to earn his bread.

Are the two sports directly comparable? Absolutely not. But the NBA schedule is batshit insane yet they've been doing it for decades. Their estimated global market value is $90 billion which averages out salaries at 3.8mil per player ranging from a verterans minimum of about 1.4mil-2.6m based on their experience. Max salaries (limited by the percentage of the salary cap that they are allowed to pay an individual) currently runs back ended deals in of 45m/48m/51m/55m USD. That is a wet dream for Dorna and an even bigger wet dream for the riders.

Thrive, survive or step aside.

Personally, I want to see MotoGP still here in five years, thriving and growing but that's just me.

/rant

That's a pretty interesting though strange comparison. A couple of observations:

- more events doesn't automatically equal more dollars. The NBA has nearly 5 times the amount of regular season games than the NFL yet the NFL has nearly double the revenue.

- the NBA hasn't increased revenue from extending the season - as you noted, their schedule has been largely the same for decades.

- more events for MotoGP will guaratee higher costs though.

- the 82 game regular season most certainly is insane and it is why there is a growing push for it to be shortened. The management of players is largely in the form of sitting star players out for games - which cheapens the competition.

- most concern has been less for the riders (most of whom don't get paid *very* good money) but for the paddock folk - mechanics and behind the scenes employees - who certainly don't earn *very* good money on average. Conversely, NBA trainers and coaches get paid vastly more money with a fraction of the travel (and overheads).

I think MotoGP can thrive and grow without a longer season. Expanding their frontiers into new territories - Asia in particular - I think has been great and can easily be offset by culling 2 of the 4 Spanish rounds (Valencia and one other).

Listening to the generous gratitude expressed by the Paddock Notes folks for an extra $10/month every time they post another podcast, my understanding is that the majority of the people that work in the motogp paddock do not make the big bucks. They seem to be living off their passion for the sport. Unchecked growth can resemble cancer, where the host is depleted of the resources that provide life sustenance. Human resources. Just what I am seeing D999.

Interesting read (and it doesn't sound like a healthy schedule to me), but there are of course some crucial differences between NBA and MotoGP. I assume NBA travels within the USA during the season, and while that is a big country, it's still easier than traveling around the globe like MotoGP does (in normal seasons). Secondly, I'm guessing that NBA doesn't have to carry as much equipment around from event to event. And thirdly, a fatigued NBA player may be more prone to injury, but he will not risk killing himself or others during a game because of bad judgement or decreased ball control.

Apart from that, I really think too many races will cause some viewers to drop out during the season when they start missing races and losing track of the championship battle. To me, 18 GP's in a season seems like a sweet spot. It also gives riders a bit more chance to recover from injuries between races.

 

All three circuits that are new since MM93 last won the world championship (Portimao, Mandalika, and KymiRing) run clockwise, which I think is good for the championship.

I have been attending Phillip island regularly since 1996. MotoGp and SBK. Both have had crap weather. SBK usually runs on the last weekend of February. End of summer, usually dry, can be very hot or not.

Weather at Phillip Island can be cold, wet & windy at ANY time of the year. I have the heater going here in south-east Oz in mid October i.e. middle of spring. September onwards can also by bloody hot. Mid October is roughly where P.I. has been run for a while. Some Australian MotoGp weekends the weather has been cold, or wet, or windy. Sometimes all three. Spectators rugged up in all our motorcycle riding gear & huddled together (like penguins) to stay warm. It's all part of the fun adventure.

We have had days too hot for road riding in full leather already this Spring. Yesterday also cold, damp & miserable. Weather forecast is a maximum of 15ºC so 59 or 60ºF in Melbourne Today. Colder than a politicians heart! Wet weather predicted for the next week. It's a lottery.

There have been meetings at P.I where I have been sunburt, not many. Windburn too.

Some years it is so cold even the penguins are shiverring.

Never the less Phillip island grand prix circuit is one of the greatest tracks on the planet. Valencia is NOT! Seems Dorna don't wish to get rid of Valencia just yet. I for one won't miss that circuit when it is dropped from the calendar!

The delightful people on P.I. have a saying "If you don't like the weather wait five minutes it will change"!

This is exactly it. I remember hearing Rossi call for it to be changed a few years ago yet his suggestion put it in winter. Obviously misunderstanding the whole Southern Hemisphere situation. 

Me personally, I'll take October - spring heading summer over April - autumn turning winter any day. WSBK have it right too, but temperatures can be extreme in Feb as well. Usually on the hot side. 

I like it late season mid-spring. It makes for awesome racing at the pointy end of the season. 2015 anyone?