MotoGP India, Marquez makes it: a "tourist" at Buddh Circuit

Marc Marquez staved off any momentary panic by heading out for a cycle ride after he was initially unable to get on the plane due to a delay with his travel documents. Like many of his colleagues, the eight-time champion had not received the visa needed to enter India, but he has now received the paperwork and will be in action at Buddh International Circuit, a new track for MotoGP.

The fans rejoice! Marquez has a visa for India!

Aware that things were running late, a delegation dedicated to the task of handling the visa paperwork had its work cut out: something like 500 applications to process, around a quarter of the paddock’s permanent team members.

How to resolve this unexpected fix? Easy, just mark the ‘tourist’ box rather than the ‘worker’ box on the visa form. In Southeast Asia at least, the procedure is much quicker and less complicated when requesting a document for tourism purposes rather than entry as a worker.

And so Marc Marquez is on his way to New Delhi and, from there, the Buddh International Circuit. The championship’s most successful rider has solved this problem, but still has another one to tackle. The lack of competitiveness of his Honda RC213 V is a long-standing issue, and one that can’t be fixed with a simple signature and stamp on a page.