Geopolitical risk adds to still-pending approval
No race at the KymiRing before the 2023 season
Will MotoGP ever go to Finland? Maybe, but that still won’t be the case this season as the Finnish event has just been canceled.
However, it has already been three years since the World Grand Prix Championship was supposed to visit the country. It was indeed in the summer of 2017 that Dorna Sports signed a contract with the new Kymiring circuit then under construction to allow a Finnish Grand Prix to be seen again for the first time since 1982 and the last race contested at Imatra.
The KymiRing was initially to join the calendar during the 2019 season and stay there for at least 5 years. Except that in 2019, the work had been delayed and the route could not be approved for the race to be held there. The following year, the health crisis froze the situation, implying a further postponement for a year, then again in 2021.
But that’s it, 2022 was finally to be the year of MotoGP’s big debut at the KymiRing. Except that won’t be the case. The event is canceled for the 4th time in a row and this time it’s not just because of the lack of approval.
Indeed, the International Motorcycling Federation, Dorna Sports and IRTA prefer to “postpone” the event due to the risks associated with the current geopolitical context. Remember that Russia has openly threatened Finland with reprisals if it joined the UN. The application for membership having been formalized a few days ago.
There will therefore be no Finnish Grand Prix in MotoGP before at least 2023. But for that, it will be necessary that the Kymiring is finally homologated and that the geopolitical situation does not escalate further.
