F1 owners urged to showcase MotoGP 'danger' in growth pursuit

Former MotoGP rider turned pundit and commentator Neil Hodgson has outlined what Liberty Media needs to do to grow the series, urging it to showcase the championship's "danger".

Formula 1's owners acquired an 84% stake in MotoGP for €4.2 billion from Dorna in July last year, although it is only now starting to sink its teeth into the series.

It means Liberty Media has a majority stake in both the highest levels of four- and two-wheeled motorsport, with the expectation being that it will implement what it has learned from growing F1 in MotoGP.

However, more is needed than simply copy-and-pasting its F1 strategy, for the simple reason that the two sports are so different.

MotoGP riders are among the bravest, fittest and fiercest athletes on the planet, but the paddock is also full of personalities.

Showing the personalities within F1 has worked wonders for Liberty Media, with Hodgson believing the same needs to happen in MotoGP.

However, the danger of MotoGP is something else Hodgson wants Liberty Media to really utilise, highlighting it to the world to draw viewers in and let them experience the violence and thrills of the category.

Asked what Liberty Media's biggest challenges are to grow MotoGP like they have F1, Hodgson exclusively told RacingNews365: "I mean, if you think about it, obviously, that's what Liberty do for a living. They are highly skilled at that, what they do. 

"It's tricky for me to answer that because I don't really know. It's not just a, 'Oh, you just need to do a Drive to Survive programme.' Obviously, that's the number one thing people have been saying. 

"I get that, and I think what they need to do, and I know this has been discussed, they need to do two things, right? One is get the personalities across. The paddock's full of them. There are more personalities in this paddock than the F1 paddock, trust me, and get the danger across. 

Showcase MotoGP's violence

A significant part of Liberty Media's success in F1 has come from its Netflix docuseries 'Drive to Survive', which has seen the sport skyrocket in popularity in the United States.

Making a MotoGP documentary in a similar fashion feels like a guarantee, and something Hodgson wants to see truly showcase the speed, gore and determination needed to reach the top.

Serious injuries are a common occurrence in MotoGP, a factor that draws people into other sports like boxing and MMA.

Just a few minutes before this interview took place at Silverstone, Moto3 championship leader Max Quiles suffered a massive accident, breaking his collarbone.

While gory, documenting the injury and the recovery process could be key to drawing people in to the sheer, superhuman strength that motorcycle riders possess.

"So your average guy or girl sat on the sofa, that's not too sure if they're into it," Hodgson began explaining. "If you can do a documentary behind the speed, the dangers, the violence, like you watch MMA fighting and people like it because of the violence.

"Motorcycle racing, you've just seen Max Quiles' crash there, the Moto3 championship leader. He's high-sided at about 80 miles an hour. He's landed on his shoulder. He's probably broken his collarbone.

"We need to be following him now into the medical centre, as crude and gory as that is, and then we need to see him have an operation, and then we need to see him three days after doing press-ups, and then five days after on a training bike, and we need to follow him back to the track for the first race meeting. We need to get behind these characters."

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