F1 and MotoGP News: Joint race weekend idea still alive (2nd Update)

(GMM) Formula 1 and MotoGP, the top global motor racing categories on four and two wheels respectively, are inching towards a sensational joint race weekend.

Long time MotoGP supremo Carmelo Ezpeleta, 78, has been dropping hints about the idea for months, with the new 2026 F1 venue in Madrid seen as a possible host for the joint world championship round.

He told Marca sports newspaper that the fact Madrid will be a semi-street circuit – normally too dangerous for MotoGP – is not necessarily a deal-breaker.

“Circuits are not separated between urban and non-urban, but safe and unsafe,” Ezpeleta insisted.

“In F1 there are safe circuits that are not safe for us, but all the motorcycle circuits would be safe for F1, like the new one in Lombok (Indonesia). That is a street circuit but you can race perfectly there on a motorcycle.

“If there was an urban area that is approved for motorcycles, we wouldn’t mind at all.”

Ezpeleta was speaking after visiting the site of F1’s 2026 Madrid GP this week.

“We did not see a little, we saw a lot and I really like what we saw of Madrid – a lot. I liked everything,” he said.

“I think it’s a very good idea and I’m very happy about it.”

As for whether Madrid really could stage a joint MotoGP-F1 round, Ezpeleta answered: “We have not looked at it yet.

“At the moment it has not been discussed – they have not contacted us about it. It is not a project that we have in mind at the moment,” he insisted.

“We keep thinking about it, but I don’t know where or how or when, but we keep doing it. We have known each other since 1992 and we talk a lot,” he said, referring to his F1 CEO counterpart, Stefano Domenicali.

“We have talked about that among other things because the problems it has can be rectified, even if I don’t know when. I don’t know. But we are not going to give up.”

(GMM) Formula 1 and MotoGP are still open to the sensational idea of staging a joint round of their respective world championships.

Last year, MotoGP’s long-time boss Carmelo Ezpeleta caused a stir when he said he had spoken to his F1 counterpart Stefano Domenicali about organizing “an F1 and motorcycling championship (round) on the same weekend at the same circuit”.

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“We are thinking about it,” he said last April. “Stefano has spoken to me about a circuit in Madrid and I have spoken with the mayor of Madrid.”

It is therefore fascinating that, 9 months later, Ezpeleta is now admitting that the joint F1-MotoGP weekend idea is still alive – on the very day that F1’s new Madrid GP for 2026 and beyond was announced.

He told Europa Press on Tuesday: “I have had an extraordinary relationship with Stefano Domenicali for many years.

“We have been thinking about setting up such a project for a while,” Ezpeleta confirmed when asked about the joint MotoGP-F1 race weekend idea.

“It’s not easy, but you can’t get the idea out of your head. If it’s possible, we will do it.”

(GMM) A joint race weekend featuring both Formula 1 and MotoGP will be “difficult” to get off the ground.

That is the frank admission of MotoGP boss Carmelo Ezpeleta (shown above) – even though he said earlier this month that the fascinating idea is being discussed with his F1 counterpart Stefano Domenicali.

“I have spoken with Stefano Domenicali to do an F1 and motorcycling championship on the same weekend at the same circuit,” he said.

“We are thinking about it. Stefano has spoken to me about a circuit in Madrid and I have spoken with the mayor of Madrid.”

Now, speaking as the 2023 MotoGP championship raced at the US GP venue in Austin, Ezpeleta admitted that the joint weekend idea is a “difficult project”.

“Of course we are aware that we are dealing with a difficult project here,” the 77-year-old told Speed Week.

“We only have a few circuits on the calendar where Formula 1 and MotoGP race in the same year. “We have found out over the years that something like this can only work if the organizer and the track operator are identical.

“But a street course is absolutely out of the question for MotoGP,” Ezpeleta insisted. “We need much larger run-off zones in MotoGP than in Formula 1.”