Singapore, not Kuala Lumpur, has won the race to host the 2026 MotoGP season presentation – what this means for pre-season testing
After lengthy discussions, it’s now official: Singapore will be the venue for the big MotoGP presentation at the start of the 2026 season. As reported by Motorsport.com, Dorna and the teams have chosen the city-state as the new venue.
Singapore prevailed over Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne, which were also under consideration as candidates. The event takes over from Bangkok, which hosted the first global presentation earlier this year. This time, however, the presentation will last two days, from February 6 to 7.
The decision also affects the pre-season test calendar. The first official test will take place in Sepang from February 2 to 4, preceded by the shakedown test for test drivers and rookies for the coming season at the same location.
Once these three days are complete, some team trucks will make the four-hour drive to Singapore to set everything up for the presentation.
The details of the second pre-season test have not yet been finalized. Options include either traveling directly to Buriram, where the first race of the season will take place on March 1, or traveling to the Thai racetrack ten days later. The latter would severely limit any changes to the prototypes before the first race, but would reduce the pressure on teams with tighter budgets.
The February schedule was finalized on the sidelines of the Grand Prix in Barcelona. From a logistical point of view, Singapore is less convenient than Kuala Lumpur, but much easier to handle than Melbourne, which was also seriously considered but would have overstretched team resources.
It will be the first presentation under Liberty Media, which recently acquired Dorna. The commercial rights holder of Formula 1 organized a high-profile Formula 1 presentation in London this year, but the teams will return to individual presentations in 2025.
