Luca Marini: “MotoGP is on a secondary level” after “traumatic” Valencia floods

MotoGP cannot take priority over the welfare of people affected by the floods in Valencia, Luca Marini has said.

The Italian was speaking on Thursday ahead of this weekend’s MotoGP Malaysian Grand Prix, which is the penultimate round of the 2024 season.

The final round is due to take place at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo Circuit in two weeks’ time, but recent flooding in the region has killed 95 people (at the time of writing) and has caused significant damage to buildings and other infrastructure, including the access road to the circuit.

As a result, the race is in doubt, but Marini said that the recovery of Valencia itself should take priority over the MotoGP race.

“The situation is traumatic,” Marini said. “I try to send all my support to the families, to who is working to try to make come back a good situation there.

“For sure, they need to have a strong winter there, it will be tough for everybody.”

Marini added that MotoGP should not take the priority, even with the proximity of the Valencian Grand Prix, and explained that he experienced something similar when Emilia-Romagna was flooded in 2023, floods which saw the cancellation of F1’s race at Imola.

“For sure, MotoGP is on a secondary level,” Marini said. “Dorna and IRTA will take decision about the race, but I think going there it is not the correct moment, it’s something that we live also in Emilia-Romagna when it happened last year and this year, so it’s something that I know really well and it’s super-traumatic for everybody that lives there.”

Marini added that there are logistical problems with organising a final round of the season in a track outside of Valencia.

“The problems are quite a lot to change the last race of the season, because it’s not a matter of find a place; find a place for me is the easiest thing to do, but find a correct place, then you also need to check with Michelin if we have tyres or not,” Marini said.

“It’s not so easy, they are trying to find the best situation, the best solution for everybody, but it’s a tough job.

“Against the weather, we cannot do anything. Just, big support to all the Valencian community.”

Joan Mir "worried" about Valencia

Joan Mir echoed the thoughts of his Repsol Honda teammate, Marini, when speaking on Thursday at Sepang.

“I’m personally very worried about what happened in Valencia, and also in a big part of Spain due to this storm,” the Mallorcan rider said.

“Honestly, everything related in sport is now [secondary]. The important thing is that families are safe, to give all the strength to the people who passed away, and also for the [missing] people. We are all with them, and nothing more I can say, nothing more I can do.

Mir also felt it was unlikely that a race would be able to happen at Valencia on the scheduled dates of 15-17 November.

“I think that we don’t really know the magnitude of what really happened, because one day ago you had some images of some floods, you see some disasters in some places, but every time we have more images of that we see how big is the problem that they have there,” he said.

“I don’t know if the priority now is to get the city fixed, not the track — probably. This is my understanding, but for sure the organisation is working to try to give us a solution as soon as possible to everyone.”