2021 Australian WSBK round to be rescheduled

MotoGP and World Superbikes at Phillip Island in the same month? Sounds tempting and it could become a reality next year, following a rescheduling of the Australian round of the Motul FIM Superbike World Championship (WSBK) to later in the 2021 season.

While Phillip Island has traditionally hosted the season opener, rescheduling the Australian WSBK round to a later date to work around ongoing issues related to the coronavirus pandemic was mentioned in an interview with Dorna Sports’ WSBK Executive Director, Gregorio Lavilla.

In the interview, , recently published on WorldSBK.com, Lavilla says WSBK intends to keep Australia on the series calendar for 2021, but move it to a later date in the year, when – hopefully - there’s more certainty around the pandemic, particularly concerning overseas movement for both personnel and cargo.

“In Australia, the event will take place at the end of the year in order to analyse the situation by that time; for sure now, it’d be very risky to decide and commit to being there in February,” Lavilla stated

“We are working on putting all of our European events first, starting in April until the first week of October and from that point, if the situation is good in Argentina, Australia and a race in the Middle East that we are working on, then they will go ahead.”

Lavilla added that a decision on the Australian round, along with rounds in Argentina and the Middle East, won’t be made until July or August.

Similarly, a decision on allowing spectators will be left until the latest possible moment.

Aussie Escape

This year’s Australian WSBK round was completed without incident, but less than a month later, the series ground to a halt due to the pandemic and didn’t restart again until August. A new, Europe-only schedule saw seven rounds crammed into less than three months in order to complete the bare minimum of eight rounds needed to qualify for championship status.

While MotoGP has seen several COVID-19 cases occur (most notably Valentino Rossi), WSBK managed to complete its season without a known or recorded case, which Lavilla sees as proof of the category’s COVID-safe protocols. However, this alone won’t be enough to guarantee an Australian round, or any other, as governments in each country that host a WSBK round will set the conditions that ultimately decide whether those rounds go ahead.

Calendar in Flux

The 2021 WSBK calendar is still under development, according to Lavilla, but early planning is looking at an 11- to 13-round schedule, with 9 or 10 of those rounds to be held in Europe.

Lavilla teased that WSBK is looking at three “brand new” circuits for 2021, and while he didn’t reveal specifically where they were, they will almost certainly all be in Europe. Possible inclusions are the KymiRing in Finland that was due to host MotoGP this year, plus established circuits that WSBK has yet to visit, which could include Spielberg in Austria (which WSBK did visit in its old format Österreichring days) and possibly some tracks in the UK that are regularly used for BSB but would be new to WSBK.

The “Middle East” circuit Lavilla mentions will likely be Losail in Qatar; a familiar stop on the WSBK schedule. It won’t be in Saudi Arabia, as the track in Jeddah that will host Formula 1 next year is a street circuit. The dedicated Saudi racetrack in Qiddiyah won’t be completed until 2023.

Photos: Russell Colvin