The calendar for the 2024 season has not yet been made known, but rumors about the scheduled events are starting to circulate and, while waiting for next year’s stages to be made official, the hypotheses are gaining more and more steam. Between farewells and returns, there is a non-European stage that could be abandoned and an important change that concerns Italy itself.
The Indonesian round seems destined to disappear, the huge costs lead to a choice: Superbike or MotoGP? Mandalika cannot host both championships and therefore we prefer to focus on the prototype world championship, which has enjoyed so much success since it entered the calendar in 2022. However, it was the Superbike that opened the proceedings in Lombok, which had raced for the first time in history in Mandalika, paving the way for MotoGP and effectively leaving its hegemony in 2024.
Toprak Razgatlioglu, Pata Yamaha WorldSBK
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Next year we should also say goodbye to another, decidedly more historic track. The Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola seems destined to abandon the World Superbike calendar, again due to costs and the fact that it wanted to focus on Formula 1. It returned to the calendar this year after the last round held in 2019, the Santerno event had divided the production-derived paddock. There were those who were anxiously awaiting the return of the iconic track and were not disappointed, and those who never hid a certain concern both for safety and for the climate, decidedly hot having placed the round in mid-July.
The Imola event, however, could be replaced by a second one in Italy: Vallelunga is in fact ready to return to the calendar. The last time Superbike went to Rome was in 2007-2008, when Max Biaggi dominated at home before the circuit dedicated to Piero Taruffi disappeared from the calendar and never returned. At least until today, given that everything seems ready for a return in 2024.
However, there was no mention of any replacements for the Mandalika round. Argentina cut out of this year’s calendar and replaced with the Jerez round which will conclude the season, will most likely not even appear in the 2024 calendar. Therefore, without San Juan and Indonesia, the series derivatives would go out from Europe only for the Phillip Island round. A single stage outside the old continent, therefore, would force Dorna to schedule another overseas round.
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