Mat Oxley: Will Guenther Steiner give MotoGP its ‘Drive to Survive’ moment?

It is no coincidence that former Haas Formula 1 team boss Guenther Steiner was recently announced as the new CEO of the Tech3 MotoGP team just weeks after Liberty Media completed its acquisition of MotoGP rights-holders Dorna. And neither is it a coincidence that Steiner started looking for a role in motorcycling’s premier race series just weeks after Liberty went public with its decision to buy MotoGP in April 2024.

Liberty is very good at creating a stir and this surely won’t be the last time it leverages elements of its F1 property to shine a light on the lesser-known world of MotoGP. Indeed, both Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have confirmed interest in buying stakes in MotoGP teams.

Hamilton is so into motorcycle racing that he has tested with Yamaha’s World Superbike team and ridden Valentino Rossi’s MotoGP bike. The seven-time F1 king made his first attempt at getting involved in MotoGP last year, when he tried to buy into the Italian Gresini team, which currently runs Álex Márquez and Fermin Aldeguer aboard Ducati machinery.

Steiner – who became a viral hit with his sweary, outspoken appearances in F1 docu-series Drive to Survive – announced the Tech3 deal at September’s Catalan MotoGP round, where Enea Bastianini secured the team’s first podium of 2025 at the Barcelona circuit.

The Italian-American takes control of the French team with former touring car boss Richard Coleman, who will be team principal. The venture is bankrolled by London-based sports and media marketing company Ikon Capital.

“I’ve been told, ‘Don’t f*** it up,’ basically,” said Steiner while announcing his new role. “When I left F1 at the end of 2023 I was looking around for what to do next. I’ve always loved MotoGP and once I got to Austin last year [for the 2024 Americas Grand Prix] I came up with the idea that MotoGP would be an interesting project. Then I met Hervé.

“MotoGP is a great sport. We need to make sure we continue the good story of MotoGP and make it bigger and we will try to help do that. The growth potential is everywhere – the biggest potential is to bring it to more people. When you watch a race there’s very seldom a boring moment, so more people need to be aware of it.”

Tech3 was founded in the 1980s by Hervé Poncharal, who is looking towards retirement, hence the Ikon deal. The team won its first GP in 1986, with Dominique Sarron, its first world championship in 2000, with Olivier Jacque, and its first MotoGP race in 2020, with Miguel OIiveira. It currently runs KTM machinery, with Bastianini and Maverick Viñales.

Poncharal, who will stay around as a consultant for next season at least, makes a good fit with Steiner. They are both colourful motor-sport radicals who do things their own way, outside of the standard corporate template. Racing needs people like that.

Liberty bought Dorna from its previous owners, private-equity firm Bridgepoint, for £3.75bn. Hardly a bargain, considering Liberty paid slightly less than that for F1 in 2017. Dorna’s management will stay in place, making MotoGP a separate business to F1 within Liberty’s line-up.

Madrid-based Dorna is a very Spanish company with a habit of installing family members in senior positions. However, it had already started moving beyond nepotism before the Liberty takeover, hiring chief commercial officer Dan Rossomondo from the NBA and global marketing officer Kelly Brittain from Red Bull Technology.

Some MotoGP fans fear that Liberty will transform the pinnacle of motorcycle racing into something entirely different, but Rossomondo insists that won’t happen. “Some people are worried Liberty are going to change MotoGP, but why would they do that when they’ve paid a lot of money for something they think is very good?” he says. “Liberty want to invest in MotoGP to bring it to more people. The key factor we need to solve is what’s the thing that hooks in new fans? I don’t want to overcomplicate this – it’s how do we make MotoGP more available, more discoverable.

“Liberty know MotoGP isn’t Formula 1 but they do have a lot of expertise, not just in this business. They’re in the media business, they’re in the music business and they’re in the ticketing business, so we can tap into their expertise across that entire spectrum.

“Riders are gladiators and the casual fan wants to know about their lives”

“We want to attract a much larger audience to MotoGP, because it’s such a visceral, evocative sport. We already do a great job telling the racing stories, but we want to be storytellers beyond that. The riders are gladiators and the casual fan wants to know about their lives and their lifestyles. We have to lift the visor on these guys.”

Will there be a Ride to Survive series, copying Drive to Survive, which was credited for creating much of F1’s increased interest?

“We are looking at it,” adds Rossomondo. “We are constantly talking to people, but it’s hard because it’s such a cluttered market now and viewing numbers are down, not only with DtS. Which is why Break Point [tennis] and Full Contact [rugby union] were cancelled.”