The purchase of Liberty Mediaowner of the rights to the F1, 86% of Dorna Sports, owner of MotoGP, is a revolution in motorsport. Since 2006, the two main competitions were not under the same umbrella. That year, CVC had to get rid of the Motorcycle World Championship after violating the European Commission’s anti-competition regulations. He American conglomerate that will control MotoGP and F1 this year It hopes to overcome a barrier that will reinforce its role as a great sports empire.
The news is not a surprise. This operation, valued at 4.2 billion, has been suspected for months. The classic motorcycle fan sees the arrival of an ‘external’ actor as a threat that Dorna sells as an opportunity. That Liberty Media owns MotoGP will not in principle alter the structure it has led Carmelo Ezpeleta, who has been CEO of the competition since 1994. He will remain in his position and continue to run the business – his headquarters will continue to be Madrid – with his management team.
Content on social networks will be key
However, the arrival of Liberty Media will mean a change in the concept of MotoGP and the rest of the competitions organized by the Spanish company, such as Moto2, Moto3in addition to the Superbike World Championship, the MotoE World Cup (electric vehicles) and the new FIM Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship. To understand the transformations that will come to the two wheels, we must look at the changes that its new owner has introduced in Formula 1 since his arrival in 2017.
When the company founded by John C. Malone arrived at the ‘Great Circus’, it found a model led by Bernie Ecclestone that was stale. “I’m not at all interested in tweets, Facebook or any other nonsense”said the Briton, president and CEO of Formula One Management until his resignation in 2014 due to the Gribkowsky case that linked him to the bribery of the German banker of the same name.
Under the direction of Liberty Media, F1’s social media activity has grown by 80%. The former driver only cared about what happened on the track. This boutique product quickly moved into a digitalization phase, which has been one of the compelling arguments used by the new owner of MotoGP to make sense of its development. Liberty Media went on the hunt for new audiences through social networks. It made the live show more attractive, but above all it sought ‘engagement’ after the race.
More markets to globalize the MotoGP World Championship
The most important activation was the one that caused ‘Drive to Survive’, a documentary series created for Netflix that will soon premiere its sixth season. It was a success, unlike MotoGP Unlimited, the Motorcycle World Championship project that did not make it past the first season. The lack of effective promotion hampered a product produced by Mediapro that failed to attract people like F1 did, with characters like Guenther Steiner, former Haas team leader.
Liberty Media has opted to open new markets that the European, but especially British, approach to F1 had never considered. This is how the circuits of Yeda (Saudi Arabia), Losail (Qatar), Miami y Las Vegas (USA). This list will be joined by the Spanish GP, which will be held in Madrid starting in 2026. It will do so in the same spirit as the American events. Business and leisure, the classic ‘show business’ of ‘Yankee’ sport that is inherent to the owner of F1 and MotoGP.
“As for monetization versus the growth of public support, I consider it to be a false dichotomy. They go hand in hand. What we have seen in F1 is that, as the number of fans grows, the profit increases. With larger audiences, They generate more partners, broadcasters or sponsors, who seek ‘branding’ and activations. As expectation grows, so does demand. A positive wheel is created“Replied Greg Maffei, CEO of Liberty Media, when asked about how the MotoGP model would change.
F1 vs. MotoGP, a gap of 120% in audience
The new owner wants to take a historic product that manages good numbers to a new dimension. The Motorcycle World Championship closed the 2023 season with records prior to the pandemic: 2.9 million viewers, 20% more than the previous campaign. One of the triggers for this increase was the fight that ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia maintained until practically the end with the Spanish Jorge Martín.
This emotion is something that F1 cannot boast of in recent times. Max Verstappen and Red Bull have dominated the last three seasons with an iron fist. They threaten to prolong their tyranny this year, despite the internal tensions unleashed by the ‘Horner case’. Despite this incontestable dominance, the media value of drivers like Lewis Hamilton or Fernando Alonso has fueled the ‘fandom’ of the competition.
The sale of the product beyond the competition has allowed Formula 1 to open a gap with MotoGP of almost 120%, according to data from last season. The difference is at levels that have not been achieved since 2005. Even applying identical tools, the ‘Great Circus’ achieves better results. The most palpable proof is in the ‘sprint’ races, which due to their excessive load and poor programming have caused wear and tear in motorcycling.
Recover old battles and give birth to new idols
All in all, Dorna has given value to a product that in 2006 had a value of 500 million and which it has just sold for 4,200. The Spanish operator took advantage, especially at the beginning, of the value of names like Valentino Rossi, Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner or Jorge Lorenzo. The fall from grace of safe values like Marc Márquez and the lack of great rivals has diminished the value of a competition that has its great fishing ground in Spain.
Within the Motorcycle World Championship itself, weaknesses have been detected. “I know what it’s like to be a fan. What I do is what I would like to see on television if I were still a fan. People want to see battles like the ones they had.” Pedrosa and Lorenzo; Marquez and Rossi; Lorenzo with Márquez; Rossi with Biaggi; Rossi against Sete Gibernau…”, said Pedro Acosta in the summer, one of the great sensations at the beginning of the current season.
That is why for Maffei, CEO of Liberty Media, MotoGP is “an incredible product that has incredible competition and emotion”, so the objective is “open it to a wider audience and a greater number of business partners of all kinds”. The Motorcycle World Championship landed in India, Kazakhstan and returned to Indonesia.
Hence, the American conglomerate will accelerate a revolution that was already underway to build a new global reality of ‘motorsport’, where two differentiated audiences such as motorcycles and single-seaters, converge without losing independence.
2024-04-01 19:29:07
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