Any plans for a 2021 Brno MotoGP round have been placed firmly in a skip after the local council decided not to fork out for a full re-surface of the track.

Although the track is privately owned, the organising association of Brno and the region in Czech Republic, in a contract in 2015 and renewed again this summer, undertook that the cost of sorting out the circuit surface would be borne by the organisers, not the owners of the circuit.

“Dorna insists on a complete overhaul of the track for 100 million crowns. Due to the covid, we are not sure whether next year would go with the audience, or whether people will want to travel from abroad, “explained Brno mayor Markéta Vaňková.

The association has to pay Dorna €1million, 26 million Czech crowns, as for this year’s competition without spectators, but it has not done so yet. Councillors extended the deadline for payment until the end of February.

Next year, this fee was supposed to be about 160 million crowns but Brno and the region may have to still pay the 2021 sanctioning fee, even though the races will not take place.

“At a time when we are addressing the main needs of the city so that we do not have to increase fees for waste or public transport, it would seem to me highly irresponsible to commit the city to such a commitment,” the mayor added.

Even bosses at the Automotodrom have no ambition to host MotoGP as it was in the past. The president of the Autoclub of the Czech Republic, Jan Šťovíček, described the decision of the council as bad news.

“I am the president of the National Sports Authority and the Vice President of the International Federation, so I am very sorry. I know how hard it is once a race doesn’t go once to get back. I am also sorry because I have repeatedly offered to help from these two positions in negotiations with Dorna, because I know Mr. Ezpeleta personally and we meet at MotoGP,” said Šťovíček.