The Italian riders are affected by the travel restrictions enforced
The first two rounds of the 2020 MotoGP season are cancelled. This impacts some of the riders due to the introduction of travel restrictions and the quarantine period set for anyone arriving from Italy. Rossi expressed his disappointment regarding this situation.
The Middle Eastern Government enforced travel restrictions due to the concerns about the Coronavirus (COVID-19). So, the 2020 MotoGP Qatar race has been cancelled for the premier class and all passengers arriving at Doha on direct flights from Italy are taken to quarantine for a minimum period of 14 days.
As a result, Rossi and the Italian riders racing in MotoGP are affected by this measure.
“It's really bad news. Such a pity… After a winter spent training, we were ready to start the season, both physically and psychologically. After the test in Qatar, I really wanted to start with the first race.
“The MotoGP class cancellation for Qatar is difficult news to take, also for the fans, because now we do not know how long we will have to wait before we can start racing. It is certainly a long time, considering the next GP in Thailand has been postponed for all classes. I hope everything will get better in the next weeks,” said Rossi.
The Italian rider is concerned regarding the fact that for now the 2020 MotoGP season is put on hold. The 2020 Thai Grand Prix is postponed for the time being.
The FIM, Dorna and IRTA are working on finding a possible way to reschedule the second race in the 2020 MotoGP calendar for later this season, so there’s no telling if the European races will be affected as well due to the growing concerns of the Coronavirus. This could be a concern for the 2020 Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team as they've dominated the Qatar test with Maverick Vinales topping the timesheets. On the other hand, the Repsol Honda Team could take advantage of this situation to improve their 2020 RC213V package.
The Moto2 and Moto3 classes will race at the Qatar round as the riders and teams were already at the track following the tests held between February 28 – March 1.
