More open garages in the MotoGP paddock, as Moto2 and Moto3 teams get new set up

A couple of decades ago, the MotoGP paddock was a bustling place, full of riders, mechanics, helpers, fans and… motorcycles.

There was always the chance that you’d be wandering through the paddock, minding your own business, when a mechanic bumped a race bike into life right behind you, scaring the living daylights out of you. An unforgettable experience!

And all around were mechanics working on grand prix bikes, in awnings attached to trucks, buses and vans. If you were lucky enough to be in the paddock (selling paddock passes was banned in the 1980s, largely due to problems of people stealing stuff), you could stand there for hours watching the world’s best mechanics fettling the world’s best motorcycles for the world’s best riders.

No longer. MotoGP bikes stay in their garages, apart from when they’re out on track. So, if you’re lucky enough to be in the paddock, you could spend the whole day wandering around and not see a single motorcycle, unless you’re even luckier and get invited into a MotoGP team’s garage viewing area for a few minutes. Otherwise, all you might see is electric scooters ridden around by MotoGP riders and their assistants.

That’s not the only change to the paddock in the past two decades or so. In other words, things were changing many years before MotoGP was even a twinkle in Liberty Media’s eye. From 2010, Moto2 and 125cc riders and teams were no longer allowed to sleep in the paddock, so instead of parking their campervans and caravans in the paddock, alongside the much grander motorhomes of MotoGP riders, they had to stay in hotels.

Why? Because teams in all three classes, but especially the premier class, needed more space for their hospitality units, which were growing in size and grandeur. Overnight, the paddock was transformed from a buzzing global village – 125 riders and their families having barbies outside the campervans and so on – into a shopping mall (all the big brands here for you!) where riders, teams and guests enjoyed their moveable feasts.

Teams needed these bigger hospitalities because the business of sponsorship had changed. In the old days, a sponsor gave a team some money, the team placed the sponsor’s logo on its motorcycles and everyone was happy.

Sponsorship is more complicated now. Sponsors want much more than their logos applied to bikes and leathers. They want to bring guests to the races – business partners, customers and so on. And they want these customers to have a great time – lunch and drinks in the hospitality, a visit to the team garage, a meet-and-greet with the riders, maybe a lap of the track on the safety road.

These businesses aren’t necessarily the big corporations that become title sponsors of the bigger teams; they’re also technical partners, smaller companies that invest smaller amounts in racing and so on.

Many teams also sell guest packages to fans, offering the same kind of experiences. This business raises vital cash for teams, especially the smaller, independent outfits.

So the paddock isn’t what it used to be, but without money, there’s no racing.

Of course, most of us who work in MotoGP miss the old paddock, but there’s no point in complaining. The world moves on, whether you like it or not, and as one team boss told me recently, “We need to become more commercial, because we need more sponsors, because you have no idea how much MotoGP is costing us”.

In fact, there is one other place to see motorcycles apart from MotoGP team garage-viewing areas. Most pitlane buildings aren’t big enough to accommodate all 39 MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 teams, so the lower-performing Moto2 and Moto3 squads are housed in tent garages at one end of the paddock.

If you’re a paddock guest who loves race bikes, this is the best place to be, because the garages are open, so you can watch teams working on their bikes, starting them, warming them up and so on. Just like the old days.

Thankfully, those in charge of MotoGP have realised the value of these open garages and from next season they will expand this concept to the majority of Moto2 and Moto3 teams. And at some venues, where there isn’t enough garage space, pitlane garages will become the sole preserve of MotoGP teams, which need more and more space for equipment and guests.

This happened for the very first time at Assen in June, because the Dutch venue’s garages are smaller than most and there aren’t many of them, so all Moto2 and Moto3 teams were housed in temporary garages elsewhere in the paddock.