MotoE: Conflicting calendars forcing MotoE riders out
Multiple MotoE riders have been forced to withdraw from the series due to conflicting EWC calendars.
It is no secret that MotoE is sort of a ‘side project’ for most of the riders in the class, more often than not riders will also race another championship alongside MotoE to keep them sharp and at a high level, this is because the MotoE calendar is quite spread out across the year and doesn’t allow for much track time.
For example in 2020 Tuuli, Cardelus, Medina and Zaccone all raced in the CEV Moto2 championship full time alongside MotoE with Aegerter also completing a wildcard and various replacement rides in the Moto2 World championship, Jordi Torres and Maria Herrera also devoted their time to riding in the European SBK championship and 2019 champion Matteo Ferrari competed in various WorldSBK rounds.
However, there are 4 riders who ride in the Endurance World Championship or ‘EWC’ for short, these riders all ride for factory teams/with factory support and therefore are required to complete their duties in the Endurance Championship but can race MotoE alongside this as long as there are no calendar clashes, sadly in 2021 there is one.
The weekend of the 18-19th September 2021 there is a MotoE round at Misano and an Endurance round at Bol D’or in France; despite all efforts there was no way either of these races could be rescheduled to accommodate the riders who race both series’, this has forced the MotoE riders to cancel their contracts to focus on their Endurance races which are expected to be fulfilled by their respective employers.
The Marc VDS team who run Honda factory rider Mike Di Meglio have been forced to withdraw from the series entirely after struggling to find a replacement for the Frenchman meaning we will not see the VDS team in MotoE this year, it was also announced that Niccolo Canepa and Xavier Simeon will not ride for the LCR e-Team either meaning Lucio Cecchinello must now seek out two new replacement riders for this year with Canepa signed to Yamaha and Simeon to Suzuki.
Last but not least, Le Mans podium finisher Josh Hook is likely to leave the Pramac team also as he is signed to race for Honda, this is unconfirmed for the moment but most likely to happen, forcing Pramac to find another rider as soon as possible.
These are troubling times for the championship losing 4 riders in 1 week and an entire team, currently, there are only 7/17 riders confirmed to race in the series this year but there are 4 months until the season opener in Jerez for teams to sort out their rosters for 2021.
Featured image – LCR
