High-risk and hair-raising: how MotoGP aims to hook new fans

The Catalan Grand Prix offered a concentrated example of what MotoGP does best and what it is now trying to sell more widely. There was speed, unpredictability and risk, but also the kind of spectacle that travels quickly beyond the sport’s core audience.

While the majority of the 74,890 people in the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya might have felt relieved on Sunday evening knowing that Alex Márquez and Johann Zarco‘s physical ailments were miraculously light in relation to the severity of their misfortune, there was also the uncomfortable but thrilling reminder of how ferocious and perilous MotoGP can be.

Imagery of the spectacular crashes has likely been seen more than Fabio Di Giannantonio‘s two impressive overtaking moves to celebrate his first victory in two years.

Love or loathe the precarity, there’s little doubt that Catalunya 2026 will stick in the memory.

For those inside MotoGP‘s commercial structure, that combination of those factors is not incidental. It is central to how the championship believes it can grow.

Moments from Barcelona circulated widely. They reinforced an image MotoGP is increasingly willing to foreground: a sport defined by intensity and exposure to risk, where outcomes can turn quickly and consequences are visible.

MotoGP’s leadership sees that as an asset. The challenge is turning it into something scalable.

For a number of years, MotoGP Group’s marketing department amounted to just a few individuals and fulfilled more of a client data compilation role as the company relied on its broadcasters and event promoters – as well as a certain Valentino Rossi – to do more of the heavy lifting.

There was scarce experience or specialists compared to other globe-spanning sports.

That began to change in 2023 when the firm hired American former NBA salesman Dan Rossomondo, who prioritised internal structure and recruitment. Former Red Bull Racing marketing director Kelly Brittain was hired at the end of 2024 to head the new look marketing direction and was joined by fellow Briton, former Manchester United director of communication, Michael Gibson, in 2025.

Walk into any MotoGP paddock in 2026 and you’ll be met with a high, long, multi-coloured and fluorescent mural of intense rider mugshots. Stroll around and there are graphic totem towers of ‘x-ray’ helmets and brains and the words ‘Wired Different’.

It is the first concise marketing campaign by MotoGP Group to present the championship in a way that is difficult to ignore or to forget. Created by London agency Ultra, it is also the prominent opening gesture of how MotoGP is finally starting to pivot towards new tactics, methods and attitudes to chase growth beyond the live TV figures.

The intention is to build internal capability that MotoGP historically lacked: a coordinated approach to brand, audience growth and content strategy.

“I was bought onboard by MotoGP, or Dorna as it was then, and a company that already had growth ambitions before it was bought by Liberty,” Brittain told Motor Sport from her office in the Catalan GP paddock.

“What we want — and need — for MotoGP is what Liberty want to see, so there hasn’t been any clashes or a feeling that we had parallel plans.”

Liberty Media’s acquisition of a controlling stake in MotoGP has inevitably shaped perceptions of where the sport is heading. Formula 1‘s expansion under Liberty provides a recent and highly visible reference point, and comparisons are difficult to avoid.

Within MotoGP, there is an awareness of that scrutiny. Questions around how much Liberty will influence the sport, whether it will adopt a similar commercial model, and how far it might shift toward entertainment-driven presentation are widely discussed.

Brittain rejects the idea of a direct copy. “I think a lot of people don’t want to hear that,” she quickly adds, on the subject of Liberty’s involvement being influential rather than intrusive “and have made up their mind already about what Liberty are going to do to the sport and how they are going to F1-it and do X-Y-Z.”

Brittain characterises the relationship as collaborative rather than directive. “It doesn’t feel like they’ve come in to strip things back or force a particular model,” she says. “They are looking at long-term growth.”

She also pushes back against the assumption that MotoGP will follow Formula 1’s path directly. “We’d be naive not to look at what worked elsewhere,” she says. “But we are a different sport, with a different fanbase and different roots and slightly different fandom and fan insight. What we need to do is make sure that we speak to that insight and not the F1 insight.”

Even so, the broad areas of focus are familiar. Media rights contracts brought in 45% of MotoGP’s €462 million (£400m) in revenue in 2024 and satisfy a loyal and dedicated audience but they cannot accelerate the metrics that the series is now pursuing with Liberty Media as overseer.

That includes a reassessment of how content is created and distributed. MotoGP has historically maintained tight control over video, limiting how teams, riders and third parties can use footage. While that has protected broadcast value, it has also constrained reach in an environment increasingly driven by digital and social media — something Brittain acknowledges needs to change.

“There is a trend across sport of opening up content,” she says. “If you look at what the NFL and NBA have done, they have opened the doors a little bit around their footage and given it to teams and athletes. I think it is definitely something we need to consider.”

“Now we’re under the Liberty umbrella, a lot of people say to us: ‘Why don’t you just do a Ride to Survive?”

Long-form storytelling is another area under evaluation. The success of documentary-style series in other sports has prompted internal discussions about how MotoGP might translate its own narratives into formats that extend beyond race weekends.

“Now we’re under the Liberty umbrella, a lot of people say to us: ‘Why don’t you just do a Ride to Survive?’,” Brittain admits. “I think it is the thing I have heard the most, and it’s absolutely something we were looking at before Liberty came on board and what they are keen for us to explore.”

“It’s something we were exploring even before Liberty,” Brittain says. “The key is making sure it fits MotoGP.”

Liberated

At 4.2 billion euros (£3.6bn) for 86% of a series, the price paid for MotoGP represents a significant outlay. But Brittain states that Liberty is not in a rush for an immediate return on its investment.

“They are here for the long-term and are investing long-term and are supporting the business with a long-term view,” she says. “It doesn’t feel like a typical piggybacked industry where they will come in and rip a bunch of costs out of the business and bleed it hard and sell it off.”

MotoGP coming into Liberty’s portfolio has enriched the networking potential, an essential crutch in the business world.

“Liberty’s involvement increased interest from agencies that want to work with us and brands that want to work with us, but also the talent,” Brittain states.

MotoGP is braced or waiting for more Liberty-ism.

The abandonment of popular but underdeveloped race circuit Phillip Island for a very F1-style Australian GP at Albert Park for 2027 was seen as the first dramatic sign of ‘betrayal’.

MotoGP Group CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta is now 79 years old, and although his son, CSO Carlos, has been manning much of the operational tiller for the last five years, there is a sense that a figurehead change of leadership is on the horizon.

Carmelo has commented that the agreed quantity of 22 grands prix with the FIM and the teams will not balloon and reach F1’s year-long calendar; however, he claimed in a press briefing prior to the Catalan GP that MotoGP could stage 27 events with the current level of interest from countries and circuits.

Brittain was working in F1 when the Liberty change happened, so there is a sense of deja vu, even if the landscape is not the same: MotoGP is smaller, lacks the scope of the billion-dollar automobile industry, is a more extreme and edgier product, is far less anglicised and much more racing rather than business-oriented.

Brittain also pushes back on the notion that Liberty’s F1 moulding should be evaluated negatively. “While the purists might feel that something has been detracted you cannot argue that 10 times the growth in fans and 10 times the amount of people being able to turn on a TV or open an app and enjoy what they are seeing is a bad thing. And I’m not talking about the income being through the roof, I’m talking about people’s time and enjoyment and accessibility to the sport and that’s ultimately what we are trying to do.”

On track, several recent developments predate Liberty’s involvement. The introduction of sprint races and the planned transition to 850cc machinery in 2027 were agreed independently, aimed at controlling costs, improving safety and maintaining competitive balance.

Even so, the cumulative effect of these changes contributes to a broader sense that MotoGP is entering a new phase.

Spreading the message

For Gibson, the immediate priority is less about structural change and more about visibility.

“I think MotoGP has to start showing up in places where it currently doesn’t,” he says. “People who experience it understand what it is very quickly. The challenge is getting them there.”

Gibson’s job is to attempt to relay this pulse. He claims the two principal routes are getting people to see and hear the ‘wow’ of MotoGP firsthand, and then learn about some of the lesser-known athletes that push personal boundaries and live stressful, high-risk existences.

“There are probably multiple ways of trying to explain the sport but none of it is as compelling as seeing it in real life. That’s the conversion for us now. I think it’s compelling on TV but seeing it in reality is almost shocking.”

Outside of the circuits, Gibson knows he and MotoGP Group have to make the unrelatable relatable.

“The one thing that always keeps coming through is that the average person cannot do this,” he says. “Most people can pick up a football and go to a park, people can pick up a racket and hit a ball; the average person cannot compete in this sport, and the people and the riders that surround it are truly special.”

MotoGP needs to bang the drum with outlets to maximise ‘earned’ media coverage, “but that takes time,” he admits.

The aim is to broaden the points of connection without diluting the core appeal of the racing itself.

At the same time, MotoGP is exploring how to engage with digital creators and online platforms. The growth of influencer-led media presents an opportunity for reach, but also raises questions about control and consistency.

Gibson says: “This whole growth of online media is more and more important: how do we embrace that without saturation, and making sure the stories we want to tell have integrity? That’s the danger now because things can be clipped up or taken out of context and we want to make sure the sport is positioned right. Embracing that online world is part of the future and we are doing it cautiously and with the right outlets.”

There is a long track ahead, as MotoGP needs to redirect some of the zeal for racing that helped bloom and fuel a 4.2bn entity into one with more business and brand acumen.