MotoGP promoter Dorna Sports will lend financial support to all independent competing teams across all three classes as a result of the suspension of all racing thanks to Covid 19.
The resulting loss of both sponsor and TV finances means the independent outfits competing across the three championships are battling to pay the wages of its employees until racing gets back underway.
Dorna CEO Ezpeleta confirmed the news in an interview with Spanish publication AS, adding that the organisation would provide around 25,000 euros per rider to the Moto2 and Moto3 teams in order to get them through the enforced rest period-expected to last for the next three months.
Private MotoGP squads-including satellite outfits- will receive funding in a different way, with the amount being set per team rather than per rider, while the money is reportedly taken from the bonus the teams would normally receive at the end of each season.
“We are trying to help the satellite teams so they can pay their salaries,” said Ezpeleta.
“The championship’s biggest asset is the people in it. There’s a very big group of people working in this (paddock) and we have to try to keep it alive and well.
“We are starting to learn about the needs of the Moto2 and Moto3 teams and we have given them, for now, €25,000 per rider.
“In MotoGP, we are activating some lifelines to be able to pay the staff’s salaries. In this case, it’s not a fixed amount per rider, but per team.
“We have to consider monthly expenses and we’ll try to help them financially for, at least, the next three months.”
MotoGP racing is yet to get underway this year as a result of the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic, forcing the opening five rounds of its 2020 schedule to be postponed until later in the season, leaving the French grand prix at Le Mans to provisionally open the season in mid-May.
The Moto2 and Moto3 classes were able to get their seasons underway in Qatar by virtue of the teams already having travelled there for a collective test a week earlier, with Tetsuta Nagashima and Albert Arenas taking victory in the respective contests.
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