Liberty Media not expecting F1-like changes to MotoGP following takeover

Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei has made clear MotoGP will not undergo the substantial core changes that have occurred in Formula 1 in recent years.

On Monday, F1’s owners announced it had reached a $4 billion agreement to take over MotoGP.

Its purchase of the premier two-wheel series comes seven years after it acquired the commercial rights for F1.

F1 has undergone several changes under Liberty Media’s ownership, including the introduction of sprint race weekends and an increased focus on the American market.

Speaking in an investor’s call following the MotoGP announcement, Maffei declared his expectation that the series' future will not directly follow F1's roadmap.

“I’m not going to be critical of where F1 was but I do think that MotoGP is much further along,” he said.

“In some cases, perhaps having watched what's gone [on in] F1 and embraced much of it already - but I'm not sure it's taken hold.”

No drastic changes

A major change that has already been implemented in MotoGP is the use of sprint races, which debuted in F1 in 2021.

Maffei suggested MotoGP’s structure needs to be enhanced rather than completely modified.

“In some ways, I think it is much further along [than F1 in 2017] but I think there's still the opportunity to see the benefit of those changes and the benefit of the improvements that they've made over the last several years,” he said.

‘And I'd like to think some improvements we can make together over the next few years, we’ll continue to drive that and show opportunity.

“So I don't think there's as much change that will come as it was at F1, but I still think there's plenty of the same upside that F1 had.”