Marco Bezzecchi
Liberty Media is starting to get its fingerprints on MotoGP following the US company’s takeover of Dorna Sports, which could even lead to various crossovers with Formula 1.
The European Commission approved Liberty Media to buy an 84% stake in Dorna last July, in a deal that brought the ownership of MotoGP and F1 under one roof. Yet Liberty often kept to the shadows in the first months of its ownership of the premier class of two-wheel racing.
However, the Liberty era of MotoGP is now becoming a bigger reality, which has even raised doubts over the future of the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island. Dorna bosses are said to have held secretive talks about moving the race to a street circuit in Melbourne or Adelaide.
The possibility of Melbourne’s Albert Park staging F1 and MotoGP races might be just one of an array of potential crossovers between the two series. And Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali thinks Liberty has a lot of F1 knowledge that it could now use to grow MotoGP in the future.
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Domenicali admires how Liberty has grown F1 since it bought the series in 2017 for £3.3bn, with the four-wheel championship now one of the most popular sports in the world. Thanks in part to the hit Netflix show Drive to Survive, F1 boasted a fanbase of 827 million in 2025.
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MotoGP cited a global fanbase of 623 million in 2025 after an increase of 12% compared to 2024. And Domenicali thinks Liberty can increase MotoGP’s audience by turning the riders into “personalities” like it did with F1 drivers, who have become global brands of their own.
“Yes”, Domenicali told GPOne about F1 being the example for MotoGP to follow: “A decade ago it was much less popular than IndyCar or NASCAR.
“Now, however, its appeal is very different. Before Liberty, people complained about boring races. Now, they are discussing how to make them more exciting.
“The drivers have been turned into personalities, and this can be very positive for us, too. Bikes are smaller and favour overtaking, and the human component and the talent of the sportsman have a greater impact than in four-wheel racing.”
MotoGP needs riders to be household names like Drive to Survive did for F1 drivers
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F1 opened its doors to the world more than ever before under Liberty, which shone the light on the stories off the track as much as on it with the person behind the visor at the centre of the action. Netflix’s Drive to Survive, in particular, helped F1 to show off who the drivers are.
While Drive to Survive often exaggerates events to create a bigger storyline, its impact on F1 is hard to question. F1 has especially enjoyed a lot of growth in America in recent years as a result, along with welcoming a younger and more diverse audience to F1 around the world.
Liberty will want MotoGP to grow in key markets like America and China in the same way as F1 during its ownership of the championship. And, as Domenicali suggests, showing who the riders are off the track as well as on it will help to improve the championship’s wider appeal.
While the average Joe will likely know who Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez are, as two of the biggest names in MotoGP history, Liberty will want the average fan to also know the rest of the grid. Drive to Survive made F1 drivers household names, and MotoGP will want that.
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