Consistency was key as Francesco Bagnaia successfully defended his MotoGP crown, finishing on the podium in all but five races.
This is made all the more impressive considering the Italian crashed in four of them, including a particularly scary incident in France, and he failed to start the other.
With Ducati the dominant force at the moment – Aprilia, Honda, KTM and Yamaha managed three wins between them in 2023 – it always appeared likely that Bagnaia would be in pole position to secure his second world championship.
While the prospect of seeing Marc Márquez on a Ducati bike is now a reality for 2024 following his shock switch from Repsol Honda, the 2023 season will live long in the memory for providing consistently competitive – and often unpredictable – action.
An absolutely bonkers stat from 2023! ��
No rider has claimed back-to-back race wins this season and it's happened for the first time since 1949, the inaugural year for the sport ����❌#MotoGP pic.twitter.com/EmMDUuW8Og
— MotoGP™�� (@MotoGP) November 27, 2023
No rider claimed back-to-back race wins this year, which is the first time this has happened since 1949, the inaugural year of global motorcycle racing as a sport. If anything, this brings to light the prevalent issue with MotoGP today: its marketing strategy. The on-track offering is second-to-none, but this counts for little if audiences aren’t being driven to the action.
Of course, the series will still be feeling the effects of losing its icon Valentino Rossi in 2021, but this is the time for the next generation to step up. The prodigiously talented Márquez competing at the front next season may be exactly what MotoGP needs.
But that’s not to say the series is not already heading in the right direction. BlackBook Motorsport looks back over a 2023 season that saw attendances once again trend in the right direction, TV viewership reflect well on the introduction of sprint races, and series organisers set their sights on further expansion.
MotoGP fans will need to get used to the unusual sight of Marc Márquez riding for Ducati following his shock switch from Repsol Honda
Attendances bounce back
It’s fair to say that attendances were down last season. 2022 saw the lowest average attendance per race since 2007. From recovering after the Covid pandemic to the first season of the post-Rossi era, there were numerous contributing factors.
In terms of a response, 2023 could not have gone much better. An average of 142,869 spectators attended each race, a 21.5 per cent year-over-year (YoY) increase. The highest average attendance in the last 18 years was 151,802 in 2018, highlighting that the series is steadying the ship.
All told, a total of 2.86 million people attended the 2023 season, a figure only beaten in 2018 and 2019 during that same 18-year span – although, it should be noted that this was the joint-longest MotoGP season in history.
At the same time, attendance figures from the race at the Circuit of The Americas were not made publicly available, so there is a chance that this season saw an all-time record attendance.
There were particular highlights. MotoGP broke its all-time weekend attendance record at the French Grand Prix, as 278,805 fans flocked to the Bugatti Circuit in Le Mans for the 1,000th International Motorcycling Federation (FIM) Grand Prix.
Just a few weeks later, the German Grand Prix was the highest-attended sporting event in the country, and it set an all-time record for MotoGP at the Sachsenring with an attendance of 233,196.
In fact, every race except the Grands Prix in Argentina and Australia saw attendance increases this season.
Sprint boost for TV viewership
While full details around TV viewership are still to be released for the 2023 season, the early season picture was positive following the introduction of sprint events.
Confirmed in August of last year, MotoGP broke rank from the model developed by Formula One and added a sprint event to every race weekend. Taking place on Saturdays, the sprint races ran to approximately 50 per cent of the full race distance, but the idea centered on giving fans more competitive action to watch. Attendances obviously increased as a result, and so did TV viewership.
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In the first quarter of 2023, MotoGP saw a 27 per cent YoY increase in its weekend TV audience, with Saturday audiences booming by an average of 51 per cent. While it would be easy to attribute the overall increase to sprint races, Sunday viewership also rose by nearly a fifth across key markets.
The most recent figures available account for the first 12 races of the season. MotoGP saw a 20 per cent YoY increase through those initial events, although these statistics cover both TV viewership and attendance.
It’s notable that the published figures were combined, as this includes the record attendances at both Le Mans and Sachsenring. Sprint races were always likely to boost TV viewership numbers initially, but it will be interesting to see whether this can be maintained.
Sights set on expansion
For the most part, 2023 has represented a positive step for the global motorcycling series. But with chief commercial officer Dan Rossomondo now at the helm, growth is the main target for MotoGP.
Much like Formula One, the US market is the focus. The series currently has one stateside race at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for further expansion.
“I don't think [Formula One] has a stranglehold on the market,” Rossomondo previously told BlackBook Motorsport.
“The US is a pretty big market and they can sustain more than one global motorsport event, and I think we'll be able to find our niche there for sure.”
The US is a pretty big market and they can sustain more than one global motorsport event, and I think we'll be able to find our niche there for sure.
Dan Rossomondo, Chief Commercial Officer, Dorna Sports
Reports now indicate that MotoGP is in discussions with Flatrock Motorsports Park in Tennessee, with a view to hosting a race at the circuit in 2025.
US interest has also seen Nascar team Trackhouse Racing express interest in joining the grid, with it now seeming inevitable that the outfit will take over Aprilia’s satellite operation, previously controlled by RNF Racing.
Expansion is all well and good, but recent failed attempts to race in Finland and Kazakhstan have shown a lack of appropriate forward planning from the series. With a solid 2023 season now in the books, the hope is that MotoGP can take this momentum forward and deliver tangible returns.