Just a few days ago the news was jumped on the changes placed by the new MotoGP owner, Liberty Mediaon the main structure that shapes the current World Motorcycle. In summary accounts: the Yankee company, led by the business tycoon John C. Malone, wants to convert the “Motorcycle Continental Circus” in something like the F1 of the two wheels.
And this only happens for two issues essentially: not understand the needs and mentality of the followers of high competition motorcycling, and only be concerned about those issues related to the financial aspect, even though the most important thing, the talent is outside the equation. Nothing new under the sun, on the other hand, when the sport is subjugated by a mere monetary issue.
MotoGP is not comparable to F1
The problem here is that the idiosyncrasy that makes up what we currently know as MotoGP, has nothing to do with the elitism that surrounds F1. Nor the average follower of a competition of both sport. Because we should not confuse hobby with passion, something the latter that is usually rigged to the millions of attendees who, throughout the planet, meet in each and every one of the circuits that make up the current MotoGP calendar.
That is why the F1 access categories with the current Moto2 and MotoGP Moto3 are not comparable. Those same to which Liberty Media intends to eliminate from the main programming of each race weekend, and offer them in a format similar to that used to cover the F2 and F3 of the World Formula One World Cup. Among other things because, historically, these have not had the relevance that if you treasure the aforementioned modalities that we find inside the Motos World Champion 125 and 250 cc.
To verify this fact you just have to ask any F1 fan, if you know the name of any of the pilots of the current and past grills of the F2 and F3. Then we would proceed in the same way with a MotoGP follower. Probably, the latter recites you from a run, per year, equipment and was, the name of the most relevant pilots who have run in the last forty years within all the categories that MotoGP encompasses, including 125, 250 and 500 cc, as well as the current Moto2 and Moto3.
But there is even more, since the ideologues of these MotoGP restructuring ideas seem to ignore that, an immense part of their followers, they care between zero and nothing the current F1, as well as the format in which it is broadcast. In addition, these draft changes that are proposed from Liberty Media will reach the coast of relegating the motorcycle and motorcycle3 to the background, also forcing them to look for pilots who come with “a bread under the sobaco”….
What does this mean? Well, to be able to run in any of these two modalities the applicant will no longer need so much talent and a portfolio of at least six figures. Whether in the form of cash and sound or sponsor mode, pilots who want to try to compete in both championships must literally buy their place.
While this is something that, in some way, already happens, the economic aspect is not the main one when opting for one or another pilot in either of the two categories. Among other things because, until now, both have equitable visibility with respect to MotoGP and therefore, there are sponsors willing to financially support those pilots who enjoy the necessary talent to run in the championship.
With the new format that Liberty Media plans, this approach, logical and fair, just de facto. No powerful company will pay large money figures if in return you are not given the visibility it deserves. And everything indicates what will happen when these organizational changes that the new World Cup owners raise. Then we should not surprise ourselves when unlikely accidents occur as a result of inexperience, (or lack of talent), of those pilots who dispute any of the two categories.
Because one thing is clear: if here the nuclear aspect of the matter is the solvency of the championship, it cannot go through its quality and, it seems, everything indicates that this will happen before or after. It is likely that Liberty’s bet, all to a letter for catapulting the MotoGP category, will work out well according to their accounts.
Another very different thing is that this new approach is the taste of fans and as sees a server (fervent follower of the World Cup and its three categories), I fear that a good part of these will not commune, with these changes that try to apply the organizers of the competition on the current format.
