Since acquiring a majority share in MotoGP last summer, Liberty Media has been quick to impose its authority on the paddock - though not all of its proposed changes have gone down well.

One of the first major decisions undertaken by the now joint Formula 1 and MotoGP owners was to remove the legendary Phillip Island circuit, one of MotoGP's most historic and high-speed tracks, and instead host the Australian Grand Prix at a proposed street venue instead.

MotoGP has not raced on a street circuit since 1982 and the reason for that was that riders kept dying. The final straw came at the Imatra street circuit in Finland, when sidecar racer Jock Taylor was killed after striking a telephone pole at the track's edge.

While safety standards have clearly been improved significantly since the 1980s, some obstacles are permanent, and it is this key issue which Adelaide track designer Bob Barnard has raised.

Speaking with long-time MotoGP insider Max Oxley on The Oxley Bom MotoGP Podcast, Barnard gave a damning assessment of the current Liberty Media plans:

"Alright, so the key is when I built Adelaide for the Formula 1, I was not allowed to take one tree out, not one over the whole track. And this thing went through the park, so there were trees I’d love to have taken out,"

"So you literally had to work within those confines. Now, when I look at this plan, it’s going to be Albert Park. They’re just going to knock all these trees out. I mean, the track isn’t going to be related to what I built in the first place, so is it going to be better?"

"I think it’s going to be Albert Park, and no one wants to go to Albert Park anyway. Unfortunately, this is what’s going on with Liberty."

Not exactly encouraging from the track designer himself - and hosting a street track layout from the 1980s might not be in the best tastes either given the grisly history of such circuits during that era.

However, it is not just safety and ecology that pose serious issues to Adelaide's Grand Prix, expenditure is also a massive issue. Barnard continues:

"There’s a few things going on. One of the big things about a city track and you take Adelaide for the Formula 1, no one drove their car there apart from the drivers."

"There was no parking space, but it’s in the middle of a city. So you’ve got public transport, all these garages in town, everything else. Everyone sort of got to the track, and that’s the beauty. It’s like Zandvoort, but this whole thing about sustainability is just so much bulls**t."

On the topic of sustainability, Barnard also highlighted yet another key issue: that of protestors and activists, which will immediately be in opposition to MotoGP no matter what:

"I don’t know if you remember what happened at Albert Park. There were people who chained themselves to trees, they went and protested outside Bernie Ecclestone’s house in London."

"You’re going to have the same group of people in Adelaide if you start showing them what you’re going to knock over. And then who’s paying for this?"

"The state government is going to spend so much money to put this race on. They’re building a whole new pit complex. I mean, it’s going to be a hundred million or more, easily rebuilding this track. And you’ve got to say, for what?"

Following the news that MotoGP could be set to depart the legendary Philip Island circuit in Victoria, Australia, Valentino Rossi has given his thoughts on what he believes will be a 'a great shame' for the sport.