The debut season of MotoE world championship was supposed to start with the opening race at Jerez scheduled for 5th May. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen because an enormous fire at the paddock at the same circuit turned most of the equipment and MotoE bikes into dust.
All Moto E… 😢😢😢 pic.twitter.com/8dLDOJhhyK
— Oscar Haro Tasende (@OSCARHAROTASEND) March 14, 2019
As per the reports, the fire started sometime late at night. It gulped the shared temporary garage unit used by all the teams. Everything including tools, laptops, riders’ kit, and the Energica e-bikes are now ashes.
Our guy Alberto D’Alessio had a telephonic conversation with Lorenzo Savadori, who will be riding for Team Trentino Gresini. Lorenzo said that the investigations are still ongoing and that at this stage nobody knows exactly what happened, and if this will affect the beginning of the Championship. Right now, all the teams are talking with Dorna to understand what will be the next step. Energica, the manufacturer of the E-Bikes, on the other side, assured that every team will have the supply of the bike guaranteed.
Dorna also released a statement about the incident, ‘while an investigation is underway to determine the exact cause of the fire… no motorcycles were charging at the time of the incident in the box in which the fire started. Work is already underway to begin rebuilding and replacing materials and motorcycles lost in the fire.’
Of course, the fire resulted in a great loss of property but fortunately, no one got hurt in the whole incident. However, because of the damage to all the championship-related equipment, it has been declared that this week’s test as well as the planned season-opener on May 3-5, both have been canceled. It is also being told that the rest of the schedule of the MotoE world championship will go ahead in a revised form, with a new 2019 calendar announced ‘in due course’.
Also read: Energica EgoGP Put To Test After Qatar GP
Following was the planned 2019 MotoE calendar:
Jerez – 5th May
Le Mans – 19th May
Sachsenring – 7th July
Austria – 11th August
Misano – 15th September (Two Race Event)
