The work of journalists in the MotoGP press center will change dramatically from these May holidays: for the first time in 70 years, the Moto Grand Prix World Championship completely abandons paper media, in particular, from printing protocols and publishing them on a bulletin board.
Generations of journalists don’t change as often as generations of motorcycle racers. Some journalists started working in MotoGP back in the 80s, but the old guard is dropping out, and there are fewer veterans in the press center. And since 2020, the number of professional journalists has been artificially limited due to covid restrictions. Finally, in 2021, starting with the Portuguese Grand Prix, Dorna Sports decided to return about a fifth of the print and electronic media. And among them there are only a few who are used to dealing with paper protocols. Dorna has calculated how much of the printed matter has to be produced (and half is disposed of after each step): to print all the protocols, rounds and bulletins, Dorna employees made an average of 20,000 copies; these protocols were laid out in special trays on the information board, from where journalists and team representatives took them and took them with them for research; often, immediately after reading, bulletins and minutes were sent to the trash can; however, 1 ton of paper passed through printers and copiers over the weekend.
In addition, from the Portuguese Grand Prix, Dorna is completely moving to online accreditation. After all, all those admitted to the paddock, one way or another, receive their own identification code, install a special application on their smartphone, which is a pass to the MotoGP stages. The only thing that will remain in printed form is the stickers for parking passes for cars, stickers for scooters and badges, by which guards and marshals can identify all visitors to the stage.