- MotoGP’s final race at Phillip Island runs October 23 to 25, before the Australian round moves to a new street circuit in Adelaide starting in 2027.
- Legends including Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner and Wayne Gardner have spoken out against the change, calling the island circuit one of the sport’s great tracks.
- Current riders are split: several call the decision a heavy loss, while others back MotoGP’s safety planning for the new street layout.
“A Punch on My Heart”
Fabio Di Giannantonio did not soften his reaction when news broke that Phillip Island was coming off the MotoGP calendar. “It was a punch on my heart,” he said, calling the Australian circuit “the most beautiful track in the world.” He said he still hopes the sport finds a way to keep racing there. He was not alone. Jorge Martin called it “the best track on the calendar.” Enea Bastianini described losing it as “a brutal loss.” Brad Binder settled for one word: “epic.” Four riders, four different sentences, all pointing at the same thing. The paddock is losing a circuit it does not want to let go of, and the reactions came fast, a sign of how hard the decision landed.
The numbers behind the move are set. MotoGP will race at Phillip Island for the final time from October 23 to 25 this year. Adelaide takes over as the home of the Australian round starting with a street circuit event scheduled for November 12 to 14, 2027. MotoGP has said the new layout will not compromise on run-off areas, the buffer zones that give a rider room to crash without hitting a wall. That promise has not settled the argument.
The Riders Who Beat the Island at Its Own Game
Nobody has a stronger claim on Phillip Island than Casey Stoner. He won the Australian Grand Prix there six years in a row, from 2007 through 2012, a run long enough that Turn 3 now carries his name. His 2011 win remains the one he rates hardest to repeat: his fifth straight victory at the track, won on his own birthday, and the result that sealed his world championship that season, with Jorge Lorenzo crashing out and missing the race entirely. His final win there, in 2012, came on a badly damaged ankle from a crash at Indianapolis that had already cost him his title hopes for that year. He has said the crowd that day is something he will never forget.
Stoner’s reaction to the news came loaded with that history. “Disappointment, massively. I honestly never thought that Phillip Island would be taken off the calendar,” he said. He called it “the world’s greatest motorcycle track” and praised the ocean setting and the fans who travel from across the country to be there every year. He does not dismiss the circuit’s problems. He has said the pit buildings and the areas around the track need real investment, and that the event itself could use a refresh after years of losing some of its off-track entertainment. What he rejects outright is the Adelaide street circuit as a replacement. He has pointed to the lack of protection riders have compared with car drivers, and to the dangers a street layout brings: tighter run-off, more chances for oil on the road, and standing water in the wet. “It’s something I’ll be fighting to get back on the calendar,” he said.
Two Champions, One Circuit, Decades Apart
Valentino Rossi’s connection to Phillip Island runs across more than a decade of premier-class racing. He won eight races there across his career in multiple classes, six of them in MotoGP. His 2001 win helped lock up his first premier-class title. In 2003 he came from behind a ten-second penalty to win anyway, passing rivals under yellow flags along the way, the kind of result that becomes a story people retell long after the lap times are forgotten. “It’s a shame because Phillip Island is a piece of history of MotoGP,” Rossi said of the move to Adelaide. He called the circuit’s character unmatched: “Phillip Island has a great charisma. It’s a track that you never forget.”
Wayne Gardner’s history with the track runs even further back. He won the first two modern-era Australian Grands Prix at Phillip Island, in 1989 and 1990, and the circuit’s main straight now carries his name. Gardner said the news did not surprise him, and he placed the blame on the state government rather than on the racing itself. “The Victorian government, they have a reputation of winning, losing, disappearing,” he said. He called the loss a disappointment all the same. “I never thought I’d see that happen after the success of the race,” he said, arguing that the event had already been stripped of much of its off-track entertainment over the years, a slow erosion he believes made the eventual decision easier for organizers to make.
Not Everyone in the Paddock Agrees
The current grid is not unanimous. Raul Fernandez, the 2025 Australian Grand Prix winner, described the move as part of growing the sport, pointing to how Formula 1 has added street circuits in recent years. “If the track is safe, I don’t care about where we go,” he said, though he wants safety confirmed before he fully signs off on the switch. Jack Miller backed the sport’s process directly. “I fully trust Carlos and their calculations,” he said, referring to MotoGP chief executive Carlos Ezpeleta. Miller still acknowledged the mood around him. “Everybody will be deeply disappointed,” he said, before making a practical argument in Adelaide’s favor: Phillip Island trips can cost a family six or seven thousand dollars, and a street circuit in a capital city removes a real financial barrier for fans who want to attend.
Johann Zarco, who won at the island for the first time this year, raised a more technical objection. He said a street circuit “will never be truly ‘street'” once the safety requirements get added in. A race layout needs far more run-off space than any real street provides, he said. He expects the result to be slower corners and, in his view, a less exciting race than what the island produces today. He said he understands why Stoner is fighting the decision. Ai Ogura took a step back from the whole debate, calling some of the reaction “overreacting.” He said he will race at Adelaide if officials judge it safe, and skip it if they do not, a position closer to wait-and-see than outright support or opposition.
- Final Phillip Island MotoGP round: October 23 to 25, 2026.
- First Adelaide street circuit round: November 12 to 14, 2027.
- Stoner’s run at Phillip Island: six straight Australian GP wins, 2007 to 2012.
What Gets Lost When a Track Disappears
Honda, Ducati and Yamaha’s factory teams stayed out of the public debate, declining preview media activity around the subject, which left the loudest voices to riders speaking for themselves rather than through team messaging. That gap says something on its own. A circuit does not generate this kind of open disagreement among champions, legends and current competitors unless it means something beyond lap times and points.
Phillip Island has survived calendar shuffles before. It has never had the loudest commercial backing of any round on the schedule, just an ocean view, a layout riders rate among the best in the world, and a fan base willing to travel for it every year. Stoner, Rossi and Gardner are not fighting for a line in a record book. They are fighting for a specific strip of road on an island south of Melbourne that shaped parts of their careers in ways a street circuit in a different city cannot promise to replace. Whether that fight changes anything before October 25, when the chequered flag falls on the island for what could be the last time in the series, is a question only MotoGP’s own calendar planners can answer.
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