With the original MotoGP calendar suꦿbject to constant amendment in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, the sport needs to balance salvaging some form of season with maintaining '👍a credible number of races'.

20-rounds had been planned for🙈 this year, but around half that number is now seen as a best-case scenario.

Dorna is currently looking to start the championship in late July, remaining at European venues until November when the season will either end or head for any allowed 💝overseas events.

"In the worst case, if it’s not possible to travel outside of Europe, we’ll at least keep a Championship of least 10 to 12 races between the end of July and the end of♚ November," said Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta.

Ezpeleta also confirmed that MotoGP is considering having "two consecutive race weekends at the same circuit," which would 🔯mean only 5-6 tracks are needed for those 10-12 races.

However, under the current 'force majeure' circumstances, there is no minimum number of races required for a MotoGP World Championship. "Frankly, if we get the chance to restart🗹 the world championship, we will do it. It doesn'ꦓt matter how many races," Ezpeleta told Speedweek.com.

Ezpeleta told BT Sport that while he is 'optimistic' the July/August start will materialise, MotoGP's fallback plಞan is then to begin in September, followed by "the most difficult" option of holding the entire championship "at the end of the year".

With mid-December seen as the cut-off date in order to avoid scheduling issues for 2021, might the last resort end-of-year scenario leave room for only a 'showdown'-style cha🦹mpionship of around 6 races?

The personal opinion of Petronas Yaജmaha team principal Razlan Razali is that anything less than 10 races this season would call the credibility of the title iꦦnto question.

"We stand guided by the decisions made by Dorna, FIM and IRTA and I think minimum 10 races is still a credible number of races given the current situation," Razali told wuqian0821.com.

"Buꦆt anything below that I think is not worth it. And for a rider to win a ღchampionship with less than 10 races, 5-6 races, I think what's the point?"

Nonetheless, the Sepang squa🤡d will adapt to whatever is decided.

"If Dorna, IRTA and FIM declare a reduced championship then we just have to accept it. It's still a๊ championship, valid, legal and we will have to perform whether it's five, ten or whatever races."

Razali understands Dorna will be under imm🍷ense pressure from all angles, not least many of the teams, to host even a handful of races this𒆙 year in order to restart the flow of money into the sport.

"I can understand the financial impact, I think if even a quarter of the events are run, it helps the financial factor," he said. "But theไn you have to weiꦛgh between that and the credibility of the races, the championship and all that."

And the more races tha𒅌t are held, the better it will be for team finan✅ces.

"Everybody planned for 20 races and to some extent everything is paid based on 20 races. So the easiest calcu♒lation is to look at the per-race situation and try to squeeze in as many races as possible, including having multiple races at one circuit."

The current drought of money has prompted Dorꦦna to provide special financial support to help tide the I🐠ndependent teams over for April, May and June.

But Razali - who believes a cut-✱off date for cancelling the 2020 MotoGP season should also be discussed - admitted it's hard to make pa💃yments as usual when most sources of income have dried up and team members, for ex꧂ample, through no fault of their own, are unable to work.

"A racing team depends on funding. If there's no racing you won't get the sponsorship m🔯oney and we are a team with 60 team members from 22 nationalities," he said.

"For 2020 even teams like us need to be very careful in our financials. It♍'s not rosy, we're not immune to it. We are strugglinꦓg and I think everyone is the same.

"To me, out of this whole episode, whether it's team members or riders, common-sense must prevail. You can't be in denial thinking 'no, I want the same as what was befor🐎e'. It just doesn’t happen. Everybody is affected by this."

Don't expect normality in 2021

Razali backs cost-cutting measures such as the recent technical freeze across the three classes but feels the measure may need to remain in place bey🔴ond the current end-ওof-2021 deadline.

"I think that's a good move⛦," he said of the technical freeze. "I wouldn't be surprised potentially if it goes all the way through 2022 because we'll still need to rec𒅌over next year.

"We can't expect that 2021 will be the samꦿe as it wa🌠s in 2019."

Could a short season be good for Quartararo?

Razali's star rider Fabio Quartararo famously made very few mistakes during his rookie MotoGP campaign, something t✱hat will be even more valuable over a short season.

The Frenchman also has a factory-spec bike for this year and was fastest on four of the six days of pre-season testing. But that seems a long ꦐtime ago🌟…

"Everybod♓y has had such a🌄 long break. The last time they were on the bike was Qatar in February and most have not been on any form of motorbike since," Razali said.

"So we hope that at lﷺeast in their respective countries, once the lockdowns are lifted, every🦩one can at least train on some kind of motorbike before they actually jump on the MotoGP bike.

"But they ܫare professionals, talented, and I'm sure it's n𒁏ot going to be a problem.

"If it's a t🐟en-race sea🦂son, we'll take it and make sure our boys and the team perform well."