2026 is a year of considerable change for MotoGP.
Not only does it appear that Ducati and Marc Marquez have lost their considerable advantage over the rest of the field, but this will be Liberty Media’s first full season as owner of MotoGP commercial rights holder Dorna Sports.
Dorna will now be known as MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group (MSEG) following a rebrand announced in February, a move which hints at the direction of travel under Liberty as the series seeks to broaden its reach beyond the traditional motorsport fanbase.
While that was a decision made by Dorna itself, it doesn’t mean that MotoGP isn’t on the cusp of implementing further radical change.
This evolution began with a rebrand of the championship under former chief commercial officer Dan Rossomondo. The latest example of that is this year’s ‘Wired Different’ campaign, which has been rolled out under the series’ new managing director of global marketing, Kelly Brittain.
MotoGP is focusing heavily on its fan engagement strategy and last year signed a multi-year deal with the Two Circles agency to drive audience growth in the UK and US markets specifically.
Much like Formula One, MotoGP wants to evolve beyond a motorsport series into a wider entertainment product – but that’s not to say that Liberty will be employing a rinse-and-repeat strategy with its new championship.
For a start, the existing management structure under long-serving chief executive Carmelo Ezpeleta remains. Liberty was able to embed its own management team when it bought Formula One, so the US media giant looks set to take more of a backseat at first with MotoGP.
At the same time, Liberty chief executive Derek Chang revealed on an earnings call that the company is encouraging “knowledge sharing” between MotoGP and Formula One. And it’s clear that MSEG is already making some Formula One-inspired decisions, such as downplaying the importance of its Moto2 and Moto3 categories and overhauling its pre-race ceremonies.
One would expect to see decisions continue in this vein, and the series has recently announced Adelaide as the host of its first-ever street race – a staple of the Formula One calendar under Liberty.
However, Brittain wants the series to take a unique approach to storytelling. Here, she tells BlackBook Motorsport why MotoGP will not simply be Formula One on two wheels.
Ducati’s Marc Marquez is the defending champion after a dominant season, but looks to be under pressure to retain his title in 2026 (Image credit: Getty Images)
How central are your riders to your overall marketing strategy? And do you want another global superstar like Valentino Rossi? Or is it more important to develop consistent stars across the sport?
They’re the faces of it and that’s what people are curious about without a doubt, and they want to know more about the guys under the helmets. They are athletes, first and foremost – they are fixated on racing and some are more aware of the need to build the personal brand than others.
There is no forcing anybody into anything. You can’t force people to want to engage in broader marketing initiatives, people need to want to do that. But I think the impetus is on us as an organisation to bring forward opportunities and to demonstrate the benefits of growing the awareness and the reasons to engage with the sport so that it feels like more of a natural progression for those guys.
In F1, there have always been those names that have stood out, whether it be [Ayrton] Senna, [Michael] Schumacher or Lewis [Hamilton], and it’s always great to have a name whilst having a stable of up-and-coming names.
Ideally, you’d have your home heroes and you’d have this stable of athletes that are universally loved or hated – because both of those attract people to the sport. I’m going to sit on the fence on that one and say it’s a bit of a blend of both.
In pursuing that blend, how important is it for you to invest in behind-the-scenes content to give fans that unrestricted access?
It’s hugely important, but it’s also important to do it in the right way. What we’ve seen in the wake of Drive to Survive was a million other copycat versions of it that have fallen by the wayside. The streamers aren’t commissioning that stuff and people aren’t watching it quite as much.
It’s important to get both some authentic storytelling to the sport – I know authentic is one of those words that is so massively overused – but some true-to-life storytelling that [also] breaks the mould of a lot of cookie-cutter approaches to behind-the-scenes [content].
We are looking at a number of propositions at the moment, and we are looking to develop a couple of those, at least, to trial and test and learn. I don’t think anybody has the next magic wand that they can just wave and have success with that kind of content.
While you’re obviously trying to attract the younger generation, you also need to retain your hardcore fans. How do you attempt to reach those two very different audiences?
As long as you’re not screwing with the core of your sport and as long as you are providing additional benefit for those that have followed you for years and are absolutely passionate about the sport, then you have to work really hard to switch super fans off.
For me, you’ve got to retain the purity and we are about – sorry – authenticity. All that we’ve done within the sport has enhanced it. We’ve given more of it. We’ve given sprints, we’ve made sure that the safety is there, but we’ve never really messed with the purity of it.
There’s no reason for purists to believe that inviting new fans in was going to do anything other than enhance it.
When we did some research about three years ago with Motorsport [Network], there was about 75 per cent of existing long-term fans [that] wanted to invite new fans to the sport. There is definitely a willingness to share space with newer fans.
On this topic, there was a negative reaction from fans around the decision to leave Phillip Island in Australia. Did you anticipate that? And how are you going to navigate that fan sentiment in the build up to the race?
Yes, we knew that Phillip Island has a number of super fans and we’ve always been massively respectful and grateful for all of our fans. I think the fact is that there are improvements that we wanted to make that we were unable to.
But Adelaide allows for an incredible fan experience, it is likelier to drive a higher level of attendance so we’re able to welcome more fans into the sport. It does set us up for bigger and better growth.
The major pushback that we’ve had around Adelaide is ‘you said you’d never ride on street circuits because it wasn’t safe’. But I think as [MotoGP’s chief sporting officer] Carlos Ezpeleta has said, safety isn’t a subjective judgement.
It either is safe or it isn’t, and it’s about mathematical measurements and it’s about adequate runoff areas. All of that is in place, all of that is a given, and we wouldn’t have even contemplated it if it hadn’t been.
But the fan experience and fan viewing areas around Adelaide are just so incredible that it was too good an opportunity not to take.
Are there any markets where you feel MotoGP is underrepresented at the moment?
I would absolutely love to put another race on within the US. At the moment, we are laser focused on making sure that we can make COTA [Circuit of The Americas] the greatest success it could possibly be. I think with a country who is as passionate about sport and motorsport as the US is, it would be incredible to put on another race there.
Obviously Africa is a market that is unrepresented within a lot of global sprots and it would be incredible to be able to put on a real experience there.
What would you say is the biggest misconception around MotoGP’s marketing strategy?
I think the biggest opportunity for MotoGP is around awareness and global democratisation of the sport. I think the biggest misconception about the sport itself is that it’s only for bikers or it’s a Spanish thing.
Obviously, it has a base in Spain, but it is a global entity. We race in 18 countries, five continents. It’s very much a global sport. And I think the new fans that we’re bringing into the sport, that have fallen in love with it, show that it’s definitely not just for bikers.
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