Costs, safety and enviro fears ahead of MotoGP move to Adelaide
How loud, how costly and how safe is motorcycle racing going to be on a street circuit in Adelaide. Experts are only just starting to address those questions well after the decision has already been made to drop Phillip Island in favour of Adelaide.
A NEW article this week by Andrew McLarney, a MotoGP reporter for GPBlog, indicates that all’s not rosy with the job of moving the Australian round of the MotoGP World Championship from iconic Phillip Island to a street circuit in Adelaide.
And the number one problem – the yet to be reworked, yet to be trialed street circuit, its cost, its environmental impact, activist opposition and the safety.
He quotes the designer of the original Adelaide street circuit, Bob Barnard, who has been hotly critical of the owners of Formula 1 and MotoGP, Liberty Media, for its decision to drop Phillip Island in favour of a city circuit.
Speaking with long-time MotoGP insider Max Oxley on The Oxley Bom MotoGP Podcast, Barnard gave a damning assessment of the current Liberty Media plans:
"Alright, so the key is when I built Adelaide for the Formula 1, I was not allowed to take one tree out, not one over the whole track. And this thing went through the park, so there were trees I’d love to have taken out,” Barnard is quoted as saying in the McLarney article.
"So, you literally had to work within those confines. Now, when I look at this plan, it’s going to be Albert Park. They’re just going to knock all these trees out. I mean, the track isn’t going to be related to what I built in the first place, so is it going to be better?
"I think it’s going to be Albert Park, and no one wants to go to Albert Park anyway. Unfortunately, this is what’s going on with Liberty."
Actually, the season-opening 2026 Australian Grand Prix had a weekend crowd of 483,934, setting a new record for Melbourne’s Formula 1 weekend. It ranks as the third best-attended weekend on record in the sport’s history.
But that’s another story.
The conflict issues for motorcycles and city streets were also raised.
“MotoGP has not raced on a street circuit since 1982 and the reason for that was that riders kept dying. The final straw came at the Imatra street circuit in Finland, when sidecar racer Jock Taylor was killed after striking a telephone pole at the track's edge,” said McLarney.
The last MotoGP to be staged at Phillip Island will be held on the weekend of October 23 to October 25, 2026.
Read the full article HERE
