This year’s Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas is set to kick off at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, from April 14 through 16, 2023. It may be the third race on the calendar, but at least three riders are still recovering from things that took place during the season opener in Portimão, Portugal back in March. As a result, two top riders won’t be competing at Austin in 2023, and the possibility of competing is still up in the air for a third as of April 12, 2023.
2023 marked the premiere of MotoGP sprint races, and unfortunately for Enea Bastianini, an injury-related time-out for at least the first three MotoGP rounds of the season. The Ducati rider suffered a nasty crash during the sprint race at Portimão, colliding with Luca Marini. Bastianini broke his right scapula in the crash and missed out both the remaining Portuguese GP weekend, as well as Argentina the following weekend. On April 11, 2023, Ducati announced that Bastianini’s doctor had advised that he will need a few more weeks to recover from that injury—so he’ll be missing out on the Grand Prix of the Americas, as well.
