Race at the Silverstone circuit was cancelled last year due to the track’s inability to disperse off the water fast enough. Post this incident, FIM suspended Silverstone’s license to host international motorcycle racing events. However, the latest reports suggest that the track has been given a one-year extension in its contract with MotoGP and will host races at least until 2021.
Considering last year’s unfortunate and somewhat embarrassing situation, Silverstone has decided to resurface the whole track. The project will be undertaken by a construction solutions company called Tarmac and will be supervised by Jarno Zafelli, an advisor to Dorna on track safety, design, and surfacing. The resurfacing work is expected to commence in June.
“Getting to this point has involved a lot of work by the staff at Silverstone but throughout it all, we have been completely focused on making sure we make the right decisions to guarantee the future of our most important events with Formula One and MotoGP,” said the track’s managing director Stuart Pringle.
“We have a globally-renowned company working on the surfacing of the track and we have one of the most respected circuit designers in Jarno Zaffelli [the track designer in charge of the 2016 Sepang resurfacing] working as an expert advisor to Silverstone during the works.”
“The extension to the MotoGP contract is excellent news for all of us at Silverstone and allows us to plan long-term for the future development of MotoGP, and all two-wheel action, at our circuit.”
“We look forward to making the MotoGP weekend the best motorcycling event in the UK biking calendar.”
The previous resurfacing of the track was done by Aggregate Industries and dispute between it and Silverstone is still open as to how to distribute the costs of last year’s cancelled event.
This year’s MotoGP race at Silverstone is scheduled to take place in August.
