Several MotoGP riders are keen on bringing forward this year's Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island by a day due to the weather forecast.
Wind, a recurring Phillip Island issue, was already a factor on Friday and is expected to pick up through the weekend and peak on Sunday, making the conditions potentially precarious - especially in the premier class, where the bikes have become increasingly wind-sensitive due to the aero development in recent years.
The idea would thus be for the main event, the 27-lap race, to take a Saturday slot - while the usual Saturday sprint, covering 13 laps, would go to Sunday.
There is already very recent precedent for this. In 2023, faced with a forecast of not just wind but heavy rain, MotoGP took the decision on Friday to swap the two races, and got a full-distance race in on Saturday without a hitch.
The sprint then never took place on Sunday, with conditions not good enough to allow it.
The forecast is less precarious this time, but there is real concern over the expectation of wind gusts of up to 60km/h and how they can influence what happens on track.
Pramac Yamaha rider Miguel Oliveira, who was famously hurt in a practice crash here in 2019 when he was blown off track and onto the grass on the run to Turn 1, said: "For me it would be the logical choice, because of what we know already here with the wind on Sunday.
😲 @_moliveira88 has a high speed crash at Doohan corner!
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) October 26, 2019
The @Tech3Racing rider is conscious and being helped away on a stretcher 💢#AustralianGP 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/LOpKexin8J
"If the wind gusts are, as predicted, over 60km/h, it's going to be pretty hard to race. I don't know about the other categories, I would say it's not easier but it's not as critical as for our bikes.
"So I would race [the main race] tomorrow even if the body doesn't really like it."
Multiple riders confirmed the topic would come up in the usual Friday safety commission meeting, in which riders meet with race direction and safety officers.
"The wind today was already on the limit," said Ducati rider Pecco Bagnaia. "And it looks that it will be the day [in the weekend] with less wind.
"So...Sunday could be very tricky, like it was two years ago. So, it will be important to speak well in the safety [commission], and try some solutions.
"I think that a good solution will be to make the long race tomorrow."
Honda rider Luca Marini said he hoped for a proactive decision - described by him as a decision taken before Moto2 riders are seen crashing on Sunday.
"If it's clear to see that it's better condition tomorrow, then I agree to do the main race tomorrow," said Trackhouse Aprilia rookie Ai Ogura, back from injury.
"But... I'm not fighting for something big! Let others decide, and I'll just follow what they do."
Oliveira said it's "hard to put a number on it" in terms of what speed of wind gusts should be enough to force the change.
"I think over 60km/h, just wind gusts out of nowhere, it's quite unpredictable. And the problem is, if we would be just in practice, more or less we could defend ourselves - you go wide, you brake a little earlier. But going all together into the first lap, slipstreaming and all that, I think it makes racing not really racing, but just staying on the track, really.
"If it was like [consistent wind] in the 40s, OK, it's windy but you can handle it, you more or less predict the lines and you kind of adapt your riding to it. But the gusts are unpredictable, yeah.
"I don't know what will come out of safety commission, because I don't go anymore, but we'll see tomorrow. Probably many guys will say 'nah, let's race!' and other guys will say it's impossible. We know how it is."
