The way MotoGP’s move from Phillip Island to Adelaide makes sense
The Adelaide MotoGP race has not been entirely warmly welcomed, but should it be?
MotoGP has announced a move of its Australian Grand Prix from Phillip Island to a street circuit in Adelaide, sparking a degree of outrage online. But is this feeling valid?
MotoGP’s new Australian venue, from 2027, will be an Adelaide street track that will be largely based on the layout F1 used between 1985 and 1995. It means geometric corners and straights, and – theoretically – limited space for run-off areas.
There is understandable outrage about the new track. This comes from two reasons: that the new track is a street circuit, and that the track it is replacing is Phillip Island – which has been a fan and rider favourite for nearly thirty years.
That the new track is a street track generates outrage in two ways.
Firstly, it means that MotoGP is commercialising and trying to become mainstream, which core fans are guaranteed to be opposed to because ‘commercialisation’ is a term that people associate with abandoning good, traditional, cultural things for money and is therefore not only a sign of things changing in a way that has the potential to reduce or eradicate the things about the championship that people like, but the financial aspect means it’s also grotesque. The process of commercialisation also means the championship is trying to attract new fans and become mainstream, but most core MotoGP fans don’t want the sport to become mainstream because part of the reason they’re a MotoGP fan is because it isn’t mainstream, which means it can be an intriguing and slightly mysterious aspect of their personality.
Secondly, it means – on the surface, at the very least – that MotoGP is willing to compromise on rider safety. At least, that’s what it seems, although until we see the MotoGP circuit itself, it’s impossible to say exactly how much – or how little – run-off area the circuit will have. It’s worth remembering, of course, that even permanent circuits have problems with run-off areas, highlighted by repeated air fence punctures at circuits like Brno and Sachsenring, and bikes flipping over catch fences as happened with Pedro Acosta’s KTM at Balaton Park last summer. In the cases of Brno and Sachsenring, this is acceptable for fans because the circuits are historic, quirky, and beautiful. In the case of Balaton it’s not acceptable because the circuit is modern, dull, and formulaic.
That Hungary crash for Acosta happened in qualifying at the fastest corner on the circuit: the fifth-gear turn eight. The Adelaide circuit, at least from the track map, seems void of any kind of high-speed corners. This is good from a safety aspect, you could argue (although the long straights between some of the slow corners are perhaps less so) but are also everything that Phillip Island isn’t.
Phillip Island is arguably the most iconic circuit on the MotoGP calendar – certainly, it is the most mythical of the modern circuits. Yes, Mugello’s layout is fantastic and the atmosphere is often unmatchable for any race other than Le Mans, and Assen’s last three-quarters feature some of the best corners on the calendar. But Phillip Island’s constant barrage of high-speed sweepers means it stands out from any other circuit not only on the MotoGP calendar but from any circuit anywhere else in the world. It may not destroy tyres in the way it did before being resurfaced at the beginning of 2024, but the circuit is still by far the most exciting and thrilling in modern racing.
If you only watch MotoGP, you’d think that Phillip Island is only ever 15 seconds away from a bird taking a walk and causing a red flag, or monumentally high winds blowing riders off-track, or a heavy rain shower that effectively halts a free practice.
But this is only because MotoGP goes there in November, when the weather is still mostly coming up from the south, from Antarctica, and is therefore terrible. In February, the weather is typically much better.
Why does MotoGP not go in February, then? The Australian F1 race is in March, and the Australian Grand Prix Corporation would like the Melbourne F1 race it promotes not to be too close on the calendar to the MotoGP race it promotes. So MotoGP is stuck with the November date, which means it either keeps the unreliable weather of Phillip Island or seeks a new venue.
Adelaide, in this case, is the answer to that because the weather in a city on the coast of a gulf is likely to be less chaotic and prone to causing race cancellations and postponements – as happened to MotoGP in 2023 – than an island off the south coast. Basically, unpredictability, or rather uncontrollability, is bad for business. About the only thing in the modern world that is less predictable or controllable than the weather is plate tectonics, so finding a place where weather is less likely to impact races means Dorna– I mean MotoGP Sports Entertainment – has a more reliable business model, beneficial not only for itself but also for its new owner, Liberty Media.
On top of the weather issue is the crowd problem. Around 30,000 people head to a MotoGP race at Phillip Island on a Sunday because not only is the weather likely to be bad, but the circuit is also quite remote. Plus, modern MotoGP generally produces dull races, even at exciting tracks.
In contrast, Adelaide could not be less remote, it is literally a city. Therefore more people are likely to go to the race and it could be an event that attracts new fans to the championship. That doesn’t mean the race won’t be dull, although maybe the 2027 rules will make things exciting enough to make this Australian Balaton Park more appealing.
A further benefit of Adelaide is that it could help combat the problem of time zones. The Phillip Island race starts every year at around 5am European time, which is very early. Too early, in fact, for a lot of fans. Adelaide is an hour behind Melbourne, and so you close the gap to European time that way, but by putting the race in a city venue you also create the possibility of a night race, which could mean the race happens mid-morning on European time and is therefore likely to attract much larger TV audiences. This isn't confirmed, but it seems a possibility.
In general, the move to Adelaide can be thought of as swapping something unpredictable and thrilling for something dull but which won’t cause unwanted surprises. It’s the inevitable path of a business that exists in our world: boring typically means more money, as long as you can make ‘boring’ an experience.
Of course, the news of the Adelaide move came only a day before WorldSBK kicked off its 2026 season at nowhere other than Phillip Island. Ironically, there is rain forecast all-day on Sunday.
