‘Racing but not as we know it…’
McGuinness says the action won’t feel right without the fans
‘I LIKE THE FANS BEING THERE. I LIKE THE BUZZ OF THE CROWD’
I’ve been looking at all the racing calendars now that they’ve been confirmed – and it’s going to be busy. Busier than I expected as it looks like once MotoGP starts we’ll have racing every weekend into November. It’s going to be a blur and it’s going to be a bizarre year as to start with at least there will be no fans and even on pitlane there will be a lot less people, so there’ll be no atmosphere. Look at the first MotoAmerica race with no fans, it was embarrassing. People are saying that from a pure racing point of view it doesn’t matter if there are spectators, but I like the fans being there. I like the buzz of riding in front of people who enjoy and appreciate what we’re doing. Saying that, I’ve done it before when I went to Qatar for World Endurance. It’s a world championship but there were about four people there watching! I suppose when you’re actually riding around it doesn’t matter so much, but you need the camaraderie and if you’re not allowed to go from garage to garage it’s going to be dull. Right now there are still a lot of unanswered questions. Will you be able to take a tent or your camper to the race? Will I be able to take my wife and kids? Also, half the paddock stay in hotels, so how is that going to work? We’ve got the dates which is a good start but logistically it still feels like we’re a way off.
I know the number of rounds has been reduced but the British Supercup in the 1990s was only six rounds. This year we’ll have 18 races to decide the championship and whoever has the most points at the end of that is champion – end of. And 13 MotoGP races is enough to call it a world championship.