Donington Park managing director Chris Tate has confirmed the track will only undergo minor surgery in preparation for the return to MotoGP next season and the outline of the iconic Leicestershire circuit will remain in place.

The FIM and Dorna are due at the facility in the next week for an inspection and Tate is confident that only small tweaks to the Esses and maybe some re-surfacing work will bring the track, which is already approved for World Superbikes, up to specification.

Work will begin during the winter as part of a raft of changes to the infield and a new tunnel under the circuit at Coppice will give spectators easy access to the whole of the middle of the track.

A date has not yet been set for the race but smart money will go in it remaining in the ballpark of where it was this year, the third weekend in August. Donington will also host the WSBK series in May but it looks likely to have to change its MCE British Superbike slot as that would be too close to the Grand Prix date.

“It’s a slightly strange situation as we all know. Circuit of Wales has the contract but they, along with Dorna, needed to find a solution for 2015. Silverstone pitched hard, we pitched hard and finally Chris Herring and I were able to sign up to the first stages of a contract,” said Tate, speaking to bikesportnews.com at the circuit.

“There are a lot of things still to sort out, of course, but essentially our circuit is being hired to run it. As far as the fans are concerned, MotoGP returns to Donington Park and we are all very excited about it.

“I have to confess, we were getting a little irritated with people saying Donington wasn’t homologated. We are homologated enough for the FIM and Dorna to run the World Superbike Championship here every year, which we will still be doing next year, subject to calendar confirmation and tell me about the difference in laptimes between Tom Sykes and the middle of the MotoGP field…

“Dorna and the FIM are due for inspection very soon to tell us what we need to do. We and the Circuit of Wales have talked about that and it is covered in the deal. Yes, we have some work to do but we already have big plans across the whole estate in the winter anyway including finishing the infield which will be accessible through a new tunnel.

“Talking about the track itself, we won’t be changing the trace of it. There might be some tweaking at the Esses and the surface will be looked at. There are various areas we have to cover.”