MotoGP will introduce sprint races to its grand prix weekends from 2023, as first reported by Autosport almost 24 hours ahead of the official announcement, in a move that has caused quite a stir – but which was entirely predictable.
MotoGP, for all of its fire-fighting exercises in recent months, is facing a decline it is struggling to overturn. While Formula 1 has burst out of the niche bubble it once occupied with the rest of its motorsport counterparts, the once clear second-most-popular racing spectacle, MotoGP, has been left behind.
Largely, this has been blamed on the retirement of Valentino Rossi and the lengthy absence of an injured Marc Marquez. The guard has well and truly changed, following the likes of Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa bowing out in recent years.
This was most highlighted at the Italian Grand Prix, where just over 43,000 people turned up to Mugello for an event that used to be one of the most popular stops on the MotoGP calendar. Not even an impromptu appearance from Rossi to celebrate the retirement of his famous #46 did much to boost the enthusiasm of fans to put their hands in their pockets and buy tickets that had gone up in price from previous years.
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That has been a familiar tale all year at a number of events. But F1’s soaring popularity has shown that people are willing to part with large swathes of hard-earned cash in the midst of a global financial squeeze if it means getting a front-row seat at one of the world’s hottest events.
Dyed-in-the-wool, long-time F1 fans have derided the ‘celebrification’ of the series as Martin Brundle spends most of his grid walks tripping over seemingly disinterested famous people. But even if Brundle doesn’t know who they are, their millions of fans on social media do, and that engagement is a goldmine from which Liberty Media has been gleefully tapping into.
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In a press conference on Saturday morning at the Austrian Grand Prix that raised a number of questions, FIM president Jorge Viegas made an incredibly honest assessment of why MotoGP has been forced into making its first radical format change since 2013 and the introduction of the split qualifying system.
FIM President Jorge Viegas was flanked by Dorna Sports boss Carmelo Ezpeleta and IRTA President Herve Poncharal at the press conference on Saturday outlining MotoGP’s plans
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