Why MotoGP teams are refusing to cooperate with Dorna over Thailand season launch

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MotoGP plans to launch the 2025 season with a special event in Thailand next month. But there are already fears that it will be an underwhelming affair.

Every rider and team will be present in Bangkok for the ceremony on 9 February. Thailand plays host to the first Grand Prix of the MotoGP season at the Buriram International Circuit at the end of the month.

There will be free entry for locals, and the event will also be broadcast live online. It’s intended to generate publicity and excitement for the upcoming campaign.

All the riders will take to a stage set up in the centre of Bangkok to interact with fans. And the teams will parade their new liveries, though they’re unlikely to reveal precise details of their 2025 bikes.

MotoGP’s commercial rights holders Dorna Sports have followed the same path as their F1 counterparts Liberty. The four-wheel series is holding its own season launch in London later in February.

Liberty are in the process of trying to acquire the sport. As such, this is the kind of event that could become commonplace in the premier class.

MotoGP teams want to hold their own launches to make money from sponsors

Speaking on the Crash.net podcast, journalist Lewis Duncan relayed the feeling among the teams about the season launch. There was some confusion in the paddock at the end of last season.

Dorna were hoping they could offer the first glimpse of the new bikes, but the teams have refused to cooperate. Instead, they’ll be holding their own independent launches as normal.

The proceedings in Bangkok will generate funds that can be shared amongst the teams. But it’s more lucrative if they cater to their own sponsors instead.

Duncan says it’s telling that LCR will unveil their bike just one day earlier. Even after hiring MotoGP’s first full-time Thai rider in Somkiat Chantra, they’ve implicitly shown little interest.

“I think MotoGP has already screwed this up. Clearly, this was a very hastily organised thing. We only heard about this towards the end of last year.

“I remember in Barcelona, with the press officers coming round and saying goodbye to everyone at the end of the season. [They said] ‘we’re having a team launch, I don’t know what anyone else is doing, but we are’.

“Clearly, MotoGP has had an idea in its head that this is what it wanted to be, and all the teams have gone ‘no, because we make quite a lot of money, and this is a great event for sponsors’. Now, it’s essentially a presentation of all the bikes you’ve already seen.

“The fact that LCR takes place a day before – they couldn’t even get LCR to do it on the ninth, even Chantra’s bike in front of his home fans. They’ve not managed to put that together. I’m sorry, the event is basically a bit pointless at this point.”

When every MotoGP team will launch their 2025 bikes

Trackhouse will kick off MotoGP launch season when they pull the covers off their new bike next month. A couple of days later, Aprilia will celebrate the acquisition of Jorge Martin.

Gresini (18 January) will hope to generate some excitement despite the loss of Marc Marquez, who will be the main attraction at the factory Ducati squad (20 January). Indeed, one would expect Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia to be among the final riders on stage in Thailand.

VR46 have pencilled in a 25 January unveiling, while KTM (30 January) and Yamaha (31 January) will be joined by their satellite squads Tech3 and Pramac. The only teams waiting until February are Honda and the aforementioned LCR.