Why is MotoGP losing its sheen all of a sudden?

Right now, MotoGP seems like a circus where the owners have removed the safety net, increased the height of the hanging ropes, and are asking the artists to do double the number of shows every week.

BHPian RiderZone recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

This piece is primarily based on my opinions, so it’s going to get complex and abstract in places. Let me then start by saying something non-controversial, something we can all agree on: Formula 1 is boring as a bag of bricks.

Right, so now that that’s established, let’s define the problem here:

Even though the last few years of MotoGP have been exciting, unpredictable, full of the best racing in all motorsport, F1 has completely overshadowed MotoGP in terms of popularity.

The bean counters in charge of MotoGP at Dorna have watched the line go down, and have responded by increasing the number of race weekends, and increasing the number of races within each race weekend.

This is a bad idea, and now I’ll try to explain why that is so.

Risk vs. Reward

Both F1 and MotoGP are dangerous sports, but the level of danger involved is not comparable between the two, especially now with the introduction of the Halo technology in F1. This is rather obvious, but still needs stating, the fundamental dynamics of motorcycle racing mean that the rider needs to be moving on the bike, which means they need a certain level of flexibility in their body, which means that they can’t be protected by anything too rigid or constraining. Riders nowadays use sophisticated airbag leather suits and fancy helmets, but that can hardly be compared to a metal and carbon fiber cage around you.

The level of risk of injury for a MotoGP rider is far higher per race than for an F1 driver. No amount of protective gear will help you when your own bike flings you into the air, and then proceeds to headbutt you at 200 kph. This is where rider safety hits a wall, and there’s simply no way to reduce this risk, especially if you want close racing.

The decision by Dorna to increase the number of races per year, and also introduce Sprint races, is multiplying this risk many times over. This is quite easily noticeable in the fact that only 4 events have happened this year, and already Pol Espargaro, Enea Bastianini, Marc Marquez and Miguel Oliviera have had to miss races due to injuries.

This is a disaster waiting to happen.

Speed vs. Safety

Another important aspect of the safety problem in MotoGP is the ever increasing power and speed. This can be all blamed on one dude and his evil monobrow, Gigi Dall’Igna. His relentless pursuit of a championship for Ducati spawned the whole aerodynamics war that’s still going, which has pushed the acceleration and top speeds of these bikes beyond crazy.

The war isn’t restricted to just ugly wings either, these bikes now have ride height devices, holeshot devices, tuned mass dampers and turbo encabulators. Riders are not only going faster than ever, they’re doing more things on the bike while going faster, leaving them more prone to errors. The monster crash at Austria in 2020 was far too close for comfort, but it doesn’t seem to have changed much.

Like F1, this type of a technology war among factories doesn’t help with their budgets either, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was part of the reason why Suzuki decided to quit the championship. But more importantly, all of these additions are alienating people like me from relating to the bikes.

What I’m going to say sounds pretty stupid, because it is, but it matters. When I ride my motorcycle on a twisty canyon path, I like to imagine I’m on a racetrack, switching from side to side, leaning dangerously, hitting those apexes. In reality my lean angle doesn’t exceed single digits, and no apexes are hurt in the operation at all, but you know what I mean. With these new machines with their buttons and levers and wings, that whole imaginary connection is gone.

I would never be able to ride a MotoGP bike, because of a number of good reasons, but with these new machines it seems more like I simply can’t ride them, they are far more complex than just a motorcycle, too many things are going on that an idiot like me wouldn’t be able to handle. That sucks, and I hate it. Moreover, this shouldn’t only be left implied, the new bikes are ugly. They look nothing like the machines a normal dude can buy, and that sucks too.

Look at the Aprilia RS-GP from 10 years ago, and what it is now. What the hell happened?

Sport vs. Entertainment

Formula 1 is more about entertainment, more about the individuals, their stories, and their rivalries. MotoGP is more about the sport, about the racing overall, or at least it has been since end of 2021.

Before that we had Valentino Rossi, for a very long time he wasn’t just a racer in MotoGP, he was MotoGP. People watched races because of him, people hated Marquez and Lorenzo and Biaggi because of him, he was a rare combination of sport and entertainment. Rossi retired at the end of 2021 season, and a large number of superfans retired with him.

Not only that, Marq Marquez missed large parts of 2020, 2021, and 2022 seasons due to some massive crashes and injuries. What that meant is that coming into 2023, MotoGP had its biggest star retire, and the second biggest star miss most of the previous races. This shifted the balance even further towards people who watch the series for the racing, not for the individuals. People like me, who enjoy random people start from 15th and go on to win the race, became the majority of the audience.

Into the mix in 2019 got thrown the F1 Netflix docu series, Drive to Survive, which helped Formula 1 massively in terms of mainstream appeal. F1 is primarily entertainment, which is why the reality drama type thing works for them. MotoGP tried to copy this with MotoGP Unlimited Amazon Prime series in 2022, but people like me were simply not interested in that type of a thing.

The sad reality is that entertainment sells better than sport, and MotoGP is trying to cash in on that trend. But MotoGP in its current form does not have the characters that can create enough drama to be entertaining. There are no real rivalries in MotoGP, they are just a bunch of dedicated supermen who really want to win races. The old psychological games of Rossi are gone, riders now often train together, and being a teammate doesn’t mean instant grudge anymore. Rivalries happen when one guy gets dominant and cocky, and then you root for the underdog to pull him back to earth. When some random guy wins every race and the championship changes hands every season, nobody is dominant.

The only real drama in the 2023 season so far has been the multiple mistakes by stewards in handing out penalties, drama that gets even more dramatic when you realize that the MotoGP safety officer Tomé Alfonso Ezpeleta is the nephew of CEO Carmelo, while Carlo, son of Carmelo, is part of Race Direction. Tomé’s partner Tamara is a permanent member of the MotoGP Stewards panel, the body that dishes out the justice. The monopoly this family has over motorcycle racing is pretty insane, Dorna owns WSBK too btw, and Carmelo’s daughter Ana is the head of Dorna’s talent promotion, running things like Red Bull Rookies among others.

I think we need a “Keeping up with the Ezpeletas” at this point.

Greed vs. Fear

Even though F1 and MotoGP are both in the motorsports category, they are very different animals. Dorna’s incompetent attempts to copy F1’s popularity while trying to fix what isn’t really broken will lead to more injuries and suffering for the riders. MotoGP is not going to be as popular as F1 simply because of the nature of their being, Dorna needs to embrace that and focus on the racing rather than the drama. It would also help if they stop with the whole sportswashing thing, but I guess it’s too late for that.

It almost seems like Dorna is in a state of panic, and they’ve reverted to the most hypercapitalist response to decreasing profits, to make their workers work harder and work more hours. This will lead to more injuries, more riders missing races, and reduce the viewership even further, digging their hole even deeper.

The whole Sprint thing needs to be scrapped, the total number of races per season are already more than enough at 20, cut back on the technology wars, just bring the sport back to its roots. MotoGP racing has been the best for many years, the only reason I would stop watching it now is because I’m too scared of seeing someone die or get horribly injured. I'm looking for a fun Sunday evening, not an involuntary snuff film.

It is too easy to forget that under those dark lids, most of these are 20 something year olds, even younger in Moto2 and Moto3. Yes they are professionals and hard as nails, but they are only human.

Right now, MotoGP seems like a circus where the owners have removed the safety net, increased the height of the hanging ropes, and are asking the artists to do double the number of shows every week. Somebody is going to get hurt, and that'll be the drama nobody wants.

Here's what GTO had to say on the matter:

Great thread, thanks for sharing! We will add it to our homepage this week.

As a businessman, I have to comment that MotoGP needs some good, old shots of marketing & promotions too. Just look at F1 under the new owners = they have greatly ramped up direct & indirect marketing, social media participation, better ways to engage fans, better onboard shots, better camera work at the races, fastest lap of the race points...and even a Netflix series that brought in millions of new viewers to Formula 1 (related reading). In the USA alone, viewership doubled and new tracks are being added.

I have watched a few MotoGP races and enjoyed them. But it simply has no headspace in the minds of regular enthusiasts like me (not the case with diehard bikers like you). If I don't even think of MotoGP during the weekend, how will I watch it? Even on Team-BHP - the definitive platform for auto enthusiasts in India - how many posts do we have for MotoGP races? We live in an age of information & entertainment overload today. There are only so many hours we have for entertainment every day, and the options are too many (Instagram, 10000 streaming apps & TV series, restaurants, drives, books & reading, family get-togethers...).

Had read a good article & discussion on The-Race too. Check it out.

Here's what BHPian mayankk had to say on the matter:

What MotoGP is missing now is a hugely popular polariser, which was VR. That they dont have one right now means people are NOT tuning in to see such a figure win, fight, or lose to anyone else. For two decades we had fights between the cream of MotoGP and Rossi. Dorna is missing the yellow army, and sorely at that.

While leaving aside any discussion of the greatness (fanboy here), there is no denying that VR defined and directed the popularity of MotoGP. He didn't even have to win. Even in Ducati days, he kept things on a boil.

Unfortunately, MotoGP does not have such a personality right now

Here's what BHPian srini1875 had to say on the matter:

Every sport needs the following to sustain:

1. Stars : Valentino Rossi, Virat Kohli, Michael Schuhmacher, Messi, Shaquille o'neal , Mike Tyson. So you get the drift?. Stars are the sport and sport are the stars. After VR, MotoGP wasn't the same. It reminds me of what John Lennon once said "Pete was a good drummer but Ringo was a good beatle"

2. Money: There is no substitute for moolah. Sports like F1 and MotoGP especially need it since racing is technical sport and almost every team tries to prove that they are technically superior by bringing their best engineers to the sport. This don't come cheap.

3. Marketing/Merchandising: No point in having talent unless you promote yourself. The sport has to reach its intended audience. Target group for equestrian is not the same as say Cricket or Basketball.

4. Inclusion: A sport has to be universal. Football is the most popular sport in the world for a reason. From the barren lands of Africa, desserts of ME, Cold regions of Europe practically everyone can play it. MotoGP and F1 are basically seen as sports of developed nations with less following in Third world countries. Cricket still has the hangover of the British empire and so does rugby. Baseball is seen as an American sport just like their version of Rugby (they call it Football).

5. Administration: Lastly it needs proper administration which not only ensures proper governance but keeps malpractices out and most importantly rakes in the moolah.

I'm not an avid fan of MotoGP but see few races but after Valentino's retirement, have lost all the interest in it. I was never a fan of F1.

Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.