Silverstone ‘really confident about future of MotoGP’

The weather may have led to a first full-programme cancellation in the MotoGP era, but Silverstone Managing Director Stuart Pringle remains “really confident” the circuit will host the series in future years.

All three grand prix races were cancelled after a day filled with rain, delays and frustration. It was ultimately decided at 16:00 the standing water around the most of the 3.6-mile circuit made racing in any class unfeasible.

MotoGP Race Director Mike Webb surmised the recently laid surface and its inability to effectively drain water was at fault for the disastrous day. The numerous bumps around the track clearly didn’t help, and Pringle stated a "serious investigation" will be conducted to understand these issues.

Silverstone and its staff are “deadly serious” about retaining MotoGP at the Northamptonshire venue in the coming years, Pringle insisted after he described as the “most challenging … six hours of my career.”

“Do you know what? I'm actually really confident about the future of MotoGP at Silverstone, because we're deadly serious about our commitment to the championship,” he told assembled reporters. “I'm very pleased to say that even after six hours of my career which I would put up there among the most challenging, we have a good relationship with Dorna, and we have great respect with the FIM, and they know...

“Look, we haven't had a great day here, this has been quite a difficult day at the office, but we are a world-class circuit. We run a calendar of racing here which is like no other. So we know what we're doing, we'll get to the bottom of it.

“So thank you for your support, you're going to have to write this up, and interpret it, but we all want this championship to thrive, and we want Silverstone to thrive, so let's try to get the right message across.

“Listen, we are committed to trying to run MotoGP here. We haven't worked this hard to get this far to just toss the towel in now, so we need to understand what's gone on, and we need to understand what the implications of the requirements of that are.”

In contrast to the majority of the MotoGP field and Mike Webb, yesterday Pringle puzzlingly stated the new surface was not to blame for the standing water than led riders to express doubt regarding the running of Sunday's race.

While unable “to give answers,” his tone had shifted on Sunday, as he pointed out Aggregate Industries, the company employed to resurface the track, and implied a representative should have been on hand to offer an explanation.

“I know you want to know about the track so let me tell you what my thoughts on our circuit are: If you think there are people disappointed about the performance of the track today you can be assured I stand at the front of that queue. We have not committed to this championship and to two wheel racing to have our fans sit for six hours in the weather.

“That is not what we wanted and not what we set out to do. We need to make a serious investigation into this and we need to find out what has gone on. I can’t do that now. I can’t give you any answers.

“I know that the contractor, Aggregate Industries, did this because they are proud of their workmanship and proud of the quality of their product and they did this to gain brownie points, and for the benefits it would bring them, not to sit here at the end of a long day and have question marks placed over the quality of their workmanship.

“But it would be unfair to round on them now when we don’t have data. We need data. I have some data. I have some data of scans of the track we did before we did the work, immediately after we did the work, and we also did an additional scan after Formula1 because there were some question marks that were started to get raised there.

“We will of course to be scanning it again and it will not be a surprise for you to know to help answer the question that the safety commission guys couldn’t answer in the press conference, we will be getting some independent eyes on this as well. We need to get to the bottom of this.

“So we need a bit of time. And you can be assured I will be briefing you all, if not in person, then in a gathering. We will be issuing statements. Because this is an important, this is a serious matter for the MotoGP championship, and this is a serious matter for Silverstone, and we need to present answers and understand what's gone on, and what's needed for the future. But I can't tell you, as I stand here now, what the resolution for the future is.”