The arrival of Liberty Media to MotoGP is surrounded by an obvious change in approach. The intention to repeat the success in audience and popularity that they have achieved in F1 is evident, and there are already changes that are underway, such as the return of urban circuits that was recently confirmed.
But what is furthest from the spotlight right now is going to be as defining, or more so, for the future of the championship than the track on which it is raced. For the moment, as Lucio Cecchinello acknowledges to Paolo Scalera at GPOne, Liberty has come up with a “wish list” of what it wants the future to be like.
The first thing Liberty has done is approach IRTA and the private teams, not the factory teams, to increase the bonuses they receive each year. According to this information, we would be talking about a triple bonus for private teams that will thus be able to have more air. A move that, however, only seeks to avoid more friction and at the same time begin to fulfill (or can) some of Liberty’s wishes.
One of these wishes, according to Cecchinello, would be to establish a minimum salary for MotoGP riders that would be set at 500,000 euros. This suggests that there are currently drivers in the premier class who earn less than that, probably much less. Although, as Lucio acknowledges, right now there are no MotoGP riders who put up money to race, something that does happen in Moto2 and Moto3, which will be another point to discuss in the future.
The agreement with the manufacturers for the next cycle 2027-2031 is the complex part
In any case, the minimum wage is not what worries MotoGP Sports Entertainment, because the real challenge ahead is reaching an agreement between the manufacturers and the promoter. And, with Lin Jarvis at the helm as representative of all the brands, they are seeking to reach an agreement in which the brands have part of the image rights pie.
Until now, the truth is that there has been no transparency and, apparently, each of the brands has been negotiating separately and each one getting its piece of the pie. Now, with the help of Jarvis, they are looking for something that Carmelo Ezpeleta had managed to avoid until now: to be part of the business. In F1 this agreement exists, it is known as the “Concordia Agreement” and, curiously, it has nothing to do with peace and consensus, but with the FIA headquarters in Place Concorde, in Paris.
This will be the new great challenge faced by MotoGP Sports Entertainment, because without factories there are no races, but if the business is not profitable for the organizer either. And all this while they look for ways to make MotoGP more “Entertainment” than “Sports”.
