Motorland Aragon will become MotoGP's reserve circuit for the next five years, ready to step in at short notice if any other venue is unable to hold its grand prix.
The new Spanish venue has already been lined up for its debut on the MotoGP calendar later this season, as it has taken the Sept. 19 date originally earmarked for the Hungarian Grand Prix. This race has been canceled for the second year running as the new Balatonring track will not be ready in time.
Carmelo Ezpeleta, head of MotoGP rights-holder Dorna, believes Aragon will make the ideal standby venue, and that having a long-term reserve in place will strengthen the championship.
"The intention of Dorna is to constantly innovate and improve," he said during the presentation of the new deal at Aragon yesterday. "It's for this reason that when we put in place a reserve circuit we had something new, and which could make a strategic commitment to maintaining the quality of the world championship.
"The selection of Motorland was for various reasons, one of which was that it was the only circuit that had a standard of quality which could stand in at any moment from April to October, one of the requirements of the world championship."
The 3.321-mile track near Alcaniz is designed by Hermann Tilke, with Formula 1 driver Pedro de la Rosa acting as a consultant. The circuit is part of a large technology park, and hosted its first international races with a Formula Renault 3.5 event in late 2009.