Marco Bezzecchi
MotoGP’s recent takeover by Liberty Media should help the sport finally begin to attract a new audience after years of waiting to grow.
The current Formula 1 owners have helped to take MotoGP’s four-wheeled counterpart to a new level, and they hope they can do the same with motorcycle racing now.
What will help them is the recent re-emergence of Marc Marquez as a superstar at the front of the pack. Spanish audiences in particular will love it.
However, ever since Valentino Rossi’s retirement, numbers have not been the same, and interest has dipped a little bit. Having little British presence hasn’t helped either.
Marquez emulated Rossi at the Italian Grand Prix this year by being very pleasant to his rivals. It was a bit of a mind game, but it shows exactly what true champions can bring to a grid.
Rossi’s ‘biggest regret’ came after a Marquez battle in 2015, where he wishes that he had handled an intense situation differently, 10 years on from it unfolding.
MotoGP fans blame Valentino Rossi’s retirement for surprising gap between F1 and MotoGP attendances
This year’s British Grand Prix set a record for having its worst overall attendance for 23 years, with less than 100,000 total fans turning up to watch the racing action.
During Rossi’s final season in 2021, around 67,000 fans were at the track on Sunday, whereas just over 40,000 turned up in 2025.
40,000 is less than 25% of the audience that turned up for Formula 1 in 2025, with more than 160,000 people heading to Northamptonshire in July.
Rossi’s retirement won’t be the entire reason for that drop, but some people on X (formerly known as Twitter) do agree that it’s a factor.
“Rossi’s retirement played a big part, numbers not surprising at all. MotoGP marketing is poor and no Brit rider either,” wrote one fan.
“Shame. MotoGP miles the better race,” said another.
“What were the stats when Valentino was still competitive?” wrote someone else who agrees about the Rossi effect, while another fan shared a nostalgic view on the matter, “MotoGP just doesn’t feel that popular anymore. I’m glad I got to go to a bunch of races in the early thousands.”
Some believe that there needs to be better marketing too: “Losing Valentino Rossi and relocating from Donington Park hurt MotoGP in the UK. Apart [from] Joan Mir, Quartaro and Marquez, I’m not sure who else has a MotoGP title.”
And finally, one last fan simply put “Not surprised,” when presented with the attendance figures for both events in 2025.
Who is the most successful MotoGP rider of all time at the British Grand Prix
It may be of little surprise to find out that Rossi has actually taken the most British Grand Prix wins in 500cc/MotoGP history.
In fact, Rossi’s final British Grand Prix left him ‘very sad’ because he wanted to put on a show for fans who had adored him for so long.
However, he was struggling on a satellite Yamaha bike, which led him to the worst finish of his career in 2021.
Across his career, he won six times in Britain, but just once at Silverstone. He seemed to prefer the Donington Park circuit during his career.
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